2023-11-15 21:25:51
In recent years, West Virginia’s leaders have taken several steps to position our state for newfound growth and innovation. We are roaring back from the low times that followed the pandemic. But while we, as state leaders, are making significant progress towards growth here at home, the federal government is considering a number of regulations that might prove costly for our state.
Just a few weeks ago, state leaders joined the Nucor Corporation in Mason County to break ground on a project representing the single largest investment made in West Virginia’s history.
Here in Putnam County, investments from Toyota continue to be a conduit of growth for our community. For instance, only two years ago, Toyota invested over $200 million more into its Buffalo plantcreating 100 new jobs. The auto manufacturer also expanded its high school education program to our county earlier this year, offering students new experiential learning opportunities and career pathways.
Investments like these represent exciting new possibilities for West Virginia’s future that we all should be interested in pursuing. Unfortunately, federal regulators seem more interested in forcing misguided, punitive regulations on our state, making growth like this far more difficult in the longer term.
These federal regulations have gotten so bad that a recent study from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) found that the total cost of federal regulations last year amounted to more than $3 trillion, equivalent to regarding 12% of our country’s overall GDP. Unfortunately, this has meant that even small manufacturing firms with only 20 employees bear nearly $1 million in compliance costs annually. That hits home in a small business-friendly state like West Virginia.
To our state, these financial burdens make it harder for firms to reinvest in their communities, hire more people, and continue growing. They also make the opportunity to attract international investment far more difficult. These are the kinds of unintended consequences passed onto states, our citizens, and the businesses that call West Virginia home that we simply cannot afford.
As the federal government looks at several contradictory regulations that have fallout at the state and local levels– including the imminent final EPA rule on air quality which might potentially put a massive burden on manufacturers — West Virginians ought to encourage pragmatism and the understanding that further tightening the regulatory grip might halt the growth our state is counting
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