CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Fresh from a trip to Houston to lure a multibillion-dollar chemical processing plant to West Virginia, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin may ask the Legislature to consider a new incentive to aid the state's quest, he told The Associated Press in a weekend interview.
In his first comments to the media since Thursday's lengthy meeting with potential investors, Tomblin said the proposal involves the potential site for one of these "cracker" plants. He declined to be more specific about the possible incentive.
"I'm not sure that I can tell what that is," Tomblin told AP. "We may have to come back to the Legislature another time in order to satisfy some of their needs ... It could very well be this session."
Tomblin also said that the Houston trip was aided by the 25-year property tax break that lawmakers fast-tracked last week. The Democrat signed the measure into law the morning he flew to Houston, after the Senate and House passed it ahead of schedule and by margins that were unanimous or nearly so.
The governor said the executives he met with were impressed by that outcome, and by the similar results for the special session legislation for regulating drilling and well operations in the gas-rich Marcellus shale reserve. These executives appeared to welcome the new rules, which industry representatives have said will provide clear, consistent oversight, Tomblin said.
"One of the things that I'm very pleased about is that we remain in the running," Tomblin said of the trip. "I'm very confident that we stand a very good chance of landing a cracker ... I feel very upbeat about it."
A cracker converts or cracks the molecules in ethane, a byproduct from Marcellus shale natural gas, into the widely used chemical compound ethylene.
Houston-based Shell and a second, as-yet-undisclosed company each plan to build a cracker plant in the Marcellus region. The American Chemistry Council estimates that a West Virginia cracker would create 12,271 jobs directly at the facility, indirectly in its supply chain and from the resulting increase in consumer spending. Jockeying to attract both plants, West Virginia officials also tout the jobs that could arise from "downstream" employers that would manufacture such products as plastics with the ethylene.
But neighboring Ohio and Pennsylvania are also in the cracker chase. Lawmakers in Pennsylvania are considering offering 15 years' worth of tax breaks to any company that invests at least $1 billion and creates at least 400 permanent, full-time jobs with a cracker. The new West Virginia law slashes property taxes for 25 years for a cracker site where at least $2 billion has been invested.
Ohio has also reportedly assembled a tax incentive package, and Gov. John Kasich met with executives in Houston late last year, spokeswoman Connie Wehrkamp said.
"We continue to work hard to make the case that Ohio is the best place for this facility," Wehrkamp told AP on Friday. "We never count our chickens before they hatch, however, and are working hard across the full range of possibilities to maximize shale's benefit to Ohio."
Tomblin said he met with "high-level individuals" in Houston for about two hours. Talks then continued between these executives and several senior administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette, Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman and general counsel Kurt Dettinger, the governor said.
"When you bring all the major players with you, I think that was impressive, that we all showed up for the meeting together so we could answer all of their questions," Tomblin told AP.
The governor said the meeting allowed for an exchange of information, but that it concluded without any major decisions. He instead expects talks to continue over the next several weeks.
"We should be able to do what we need to do in a short period of time," Tomblin said.
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