Governor Releases February "Open for
Business" Report
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Gov.
Joe Manchin today released the latest in a
series of regular "Open for Business"
reports, documenting the state's economic
progress. The February 2006 report reflects
on positive progress in the state's economic
development efforts during the past month,
with projects and related announcements that
will assist with the creation of as many as
76 new jobs, the preservation of a significant
number of existing jobs, and the investment
of more than $333 million in West Virginia.
Warren Distribution, an automotive
supply company, will invest $13 million
to locate its lubricant blending operation
in Marshall County, creating as many as 46
new jobs in the city of Glen Dale. The company,
which manufactures and distributes automotive
aftermarket products, will build a system
to pump bulk lubricants from barges into tanks
inside and outside a 250,000-square-foot building
for blending to proper specifications and
packaging into pails and bottles, some of
which will be made by Warren. For more information
about the company, visit www.wd-wpp.com.
Essroc Cement Corp. announced a $320
million expansion and modernization plan for
the company's Martinsburg plant.
The construction project, scheduled to begin
this spring, will enable the retention of
150 jobs and may provide future employment
opportunities in West Virginia. It will create
as many as 250 construction jobs during the
building phase. The Martinsburg plant currently
produces 2,350 short tons of clinker per day.
The expansion project has been permitted to
increase capacity up to 6,000 short tons per
day and improve the plant's environmental
footprint. Essroc is part of Italy's Italcementi
Group, one of the largest cement producers
in the world.
Accurate Millworks Inc. announced
the company's location in the USDA Forest
Service Wood Education and Resource Center's
rough mill facility in Princeton
and an initial offering of as many as 30 jobs.
The company, milling kiln-dried basswood and
poplar components for the window manufacturing
industry, will seek skilled machine operators.
Accurate Millworks leased the Wood Education
and Resource Center's 42,000-square-foot factory
as a hardwood molding and milling facility.
The center was created through the efforts
of Sen. Robert C. Byrd. Accurate Millworks'
owner Robert Kincaid is a partner of WoodMart
Window Coverings in Van Nuys, Calif., which
manufactures plantation shutters using hardwood
from several West Virginia suppliers.
Chesapeake Energy will construct
its Eastern United States Division office
in West Virginia, hiring geologists,
engineers and other energy professionals and
staff. The company, the nation's second largest
independent producer of natural gas and the
most active driller of new natural gas and
oil wells in the United States, completed
its acquisition of West Virginia-based Columbia
Natural Resources in November 2005.
Dow, in a cooperative partnership
with West Virginia University, WVU Tech and
Marshall University, is transforming its South
Charleston Technology Park into a nationally
recognized education, research and development
center. Batelle Memorial Institute,
a world-renowned contract research institute
headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, has committed
through collaboration with Dow and the Chemical
Alliance Zone to assign researchers and a
manager to this site to conduct research and
work with the educational partners and other
organizations on collaborative research and
business opportunities.
American Electric Power and its subsidiary,
Appalachian Power, filed an application with
the Public Service Commission of West Virginia
seeking authority to construct a 600-megawatt
Integrated Coal Gasification Combined Cycle
power plant - or IGCC - electric
generating unit next to its Mountaineer Plant
near New Haven in Mason County. As one of
the first commercial scale coal gasification
projects, this will allow West Virginia to
be a national leader in the development of
clean coal technology for power generation
and support future opportunities to produce
a variety of clean liquid fuels and chemical
feedstocks for other industries. AEP also
announced plans to build a $3 billion, 550-mile
transmission line from its John Amos Power
plant near Winfield to New Jersey.
|