Jim Justice on Energy & Oil

Lower the severance tax on coal and gas

Lower, and then tier, the severance tax on coal and gas

But I am telling you, I am not a hog. If we have the bonanza that I think is in front of us with coal--especially metallurgical coals--what if? What if I were to tell you, just this: Think about this for a second. If coal is $35, whoever is mining that is losing money. Lowering the severance tax on that to 2%, or whatever you want to do, okay, I'm good. There's got to be a sweet spot to where we're back to five.

What if it goes to $200 a ton? What happens? There's no way that anybody's cost is going to be greater than $80. At this level right here, anybody's profit is $120 a ton. At this point in time right here, this severance tax needs to be 10%. All it would do is lower the profitability to $110 a ton.

Promote new uses for central Appalachian coal

• Promote new uses for coal. Find chemical and mineral advantages for central Appalachian coal. Then market that strength.
• Cultivate new markets for our natural gas.
• Rekindle a better marketing strategy for our quality metallurgical coal to the world.
• Incentivize our power plants to use only West Virginia coal.