By Craig Blair

December 27, 2025 - Nearly a century ago, our grandparents built the transmission lines that lit up West Virginia’s farms, homes, and towns. Their grit and vision pulled us out of the dark and gave us the foundation for a thriving state. 

Today, we face a new challenge: those same transmission lines are aging, overloaded, and breaking down. They simply weren’t built for the demands of modern life. The result? More outages, higher costs, and missed opportunities for West Virginia families and businesses.

If we don’t act, things will only get worse. But if we step up, just as our grandparents did, we can secure a future where electricity is reliable, affordable, and a driver of economic growth.

Transmission is the Energy Highway that Powers America West Virginia has always been an energy state. For generations, our coal, gas, and electricity have powered America. Just like the railroads carrying coal out of our hills bring wealth back home, our transmission system carries electricity out and brings revenue back in.

In fact, West Virginia receives $700 million per year from electricity exports. That’s revenue that can fund thousands of teachers, police officers, and road repairs, the necessities we rely on every day.” 

Weak transmission threatens that revenue and puts our future prosperity at risk. “You have a grid system in this country that’s obsolete and a disaster,” said candidate Donald Trump, now the Trump Administration has rightly declared a National Energy Emergency, calling for decisive action to ensure the reliability and strength of the grid.

West Virginia can do its part, by modernizing our grid to withstand storms, handle higher demand, and connect our energy to the markets that will pay back to West Virginia.

Some may say, “Why spend money on new lines when the old ones still work?” The truth is, they barely do. Repairs won’t solve the underlying issue: the electric grid is aging and not able to keep up with our modern power needs. For example, today’s modern home has a peak electricity demand nearly two-to-three times what it was 40 years ago. Our transmission system wasn’t designed for the load. Power lines that once worked well now bottleneck power and struggle.

It’s like trying to stream 4k video on dial-up internet.

The Department of Energy has estimated that the annual cost from power outages cost U.S businesses $150 billion, and manufacturers lose thousands of dollars every hour power is out. These costs get passed on to consumers and drive inflation higher.

Investing in reliability today is cheaper than paying for blackouts tomorrow. In fact, studies show every dollar spent on transmission returns several times more in customer benefits–avoided outages, lower bills, and stronger local economies.

Upgrading our transmission isn’t just about keeping the lights on. It’s about:

Lower bills for West Virginia families.

Hundreds of construction jobs for local workers.

Stronger small businesses from the ripple effects of new spending.

New tax revenue that supports schools, law enforcement, and local services.

This is the kind of investment that keeps young people here, gives businesses confidence to expand, and ensures West Virginia remains an energy leader.

Our grandparents gave us the gift of reliable power. Now it’s our turn to carry that legacy forward. Let’s build the transmission system that will power West Virginia for the next 100 years.

Reliable. Affordable. Strong. That’s the energy future our kids and grandkids deserve, and the one we have the chance to create together, if we act now.

Craig Blair is the former West Virginia Senate President and current executive director of West Virginians for Reliable and Affordable Energy.