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Morrisey highlights ‘50 by 50’ plan at annual natural gas conference

Gov. Patrick Morrisey told members of the natural gas industry Thursday that the demand for data centers would grow demand for electricity and the fuels to power those plants, such as natural gas. (Photo Courtesy/West Virginia Governor’s Office)

CHARLESTON – Gov. Patrick Morrisey told attendees of one of the largest natural gas events in West Virginia that the latest announcement about Houston-based Calpine LLC building a natural gas power plant in Marshall County is another example of his 50 by 50 plan gaining support.

Morrisey spoke Thursday morning at the Gas and Oil Association of West Virginia’s 2026 winter meeting at the Marriott Town Center Hotel in downtown Charleston.

“West Virginia is on the rise, and gas is playing a major role in that,” Morrisey told the crowd. “I’ve always thought that West Virginia is America’s energy state and just keeps needing a little bit more kick to get it to the next level.

“There is room for you to be strong, there is room for you to be dominant, and there’s room for other forms of energy to be strong and dominant as well,” Morrisey continued. “Because for West Virginia to truly change and transform to the kind of state we want it to be, it’s going to rely heavily on all the people in this room.”

Morrisey announced that Calpine, a subsidiary of Baltimore-based energy management services company Constellation Energy, has finalized its project to build a 500-megawatt natural gas power plant in Moundsville. The proposed $1 billion investment would involve 400 construction jobs and 25 permanent jobs when complete.

“That’s great. That’s good stuff,” Morrisey said. “This is a major vote of confidence for our state.”

Morrisey said the potential of another 500 megawatts of electric power was proof that companies were heeding his call to increase the number of megawatts produced by West Virginia from 16 gigawatts to 50 gigawatts by 2050. Morrisey’s 50 by 50 plan was first announced last summer.

The plan focuses on easing regulatory hurdles for power producers in order to increase the state’s base load electric generating capacity from 16 gigawatts to 50 gigawatts in the next 25 years to meet the growing demand for electricity by AI programs and data centers in the PJM Interconnection grid, and to remain competitive with other nations, such as China.

During the 2025 Governor’s Energy Summit last November, Morrisey announced several economic development projects related to energy that could add 1.9 gigawatts of energy towards his 50 by 50 plan. Those projects included a $2.5 billion FirstEnergy natural gas power plant with additional 70 megawatts of utility-scale solar power generation, and the $1.2 billion Wolf Summit Energy 625-megawatt natural gas power plant in Harrison County.

With the Calpine announcement, Morrisey said that brings the state to 2.35 gigawatts in proposed new natural gas power generation, with the potential for future announcements that could result in between seven to 10 gigawatts of new electric generation.

“I know a lot of people thought that we were on the sauce a little bit when we went from 16 gigawatts in our plan to 50 by 2050,” Morrisey said. “The demand is certainly there. And now the key is we’re really taking advantage of our energy resources in a way we haven’t seen before … That is the plan, and it’s a good plan. And I’m not going to let any media or anyone come in our way.”

Morrisey told attendees that a key driver of anticipated future energy demand is the technology sector, particularly the development of data centers. West Virginia has taken legislative action to position itself as a prime location for this industry through the passage last year of House Bill 2014, the bill creating data center and microgrid districts.

“I went out to California. I spent a lot of time with data center companies and a lot of the tech companies. And West Virginia wasn’t on the map in terms of the data center front,” Morrisey said. “I said, ‘you know what? We need to change that.’ And there are a lot of opportunities in advanced manufacturing, in artificial intelligence and technology. And we spent a lot of time working on it.

“The reason I’ve been so bullish on what’s going on from a technology perspective is because that’s fueling all the demand for your products,” Morrisey continued. “We’re really taking advantage of our energy resources in a way we haven’t seen before … to marry that up with all the companies, the customers that want to come into our state.”

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com

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