West Virginia’s Auditor J.B. McCuskey will become the state’s Attorney General in January.
Statehouse reporter Caelan Bailey spoke with McCuskey about how he plans to follow Morrisey’s legacy, his career as a lawyer and delegate, and priorities for the incoming administration as a member of the incoming Board of Public Works.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Bailey: As auditor, you established the West Virginia checkbook website for fiscal transparency. How do you see government transparency fitting into your role as attorney general?
McCuskey: I view government transparency as a baseline duty of public officials. The taxpayers are our bosses. They are also the stockholders in the company that pays us, if you will. And so for me, the idea that bureaucracies hide what they’re doing, and when the government hides its functionality and its actions from the public, it leads to enormous problems.
As we’ve seen, the national debt at the federal level just absolutely explodes. I think a lot of that can be tied back to the fact that our federal government and Congress, in many ways, doesn’t allow taxpayers to truly see how they’re funding programs, why they’re funding programs, who is getting government contracts, and how much they’re being paid and so, you know, just as an aside, I’m very excited to see how the DOGE sort of committee works.
Bailey: You mentioned DOGE federally. During the campaign, now-Governor-elect Morrissey mentioned rightsizing frequently. How do you see that fitting into West Virginia government, and any efforts the Attorney General’s office might have in that?
McCuskey: So when you look at where West Virginia is today, we live in a world where very frequently, when a government program is not producing the results that it’s supposed to, they will come to the legislature and say, I can’t do this because I don’t have enough funding. And that, in my mind, is a lazy explanation for poor results.
What rightsizing is really about is determining how much something is supposed to cost, not how much it cost last year, and then adding to it. We believe, both Patrick and I do, that the services that the government must provide to its citizens have to be done better than they’re being done now. And neither one of us believe that the only answer to providing those better services is increasing the cost of the taxpayer.
There are a myriad of creative ways that when people really dig down and do the hard work they can, they can determine how to do what it is that they’re doing at less, at less of a cost and at greater efficiency. And so the idea of rightsizing isn’t necessarily about eliminating things. It’s about making the things we do work better and actually doing the hard work to make them better without increasing their cost.
Bailey: You have commented on supporting coal for energy needs like data centers and artificial intelligence. Recently, Senator Shelley Moore Capito has worked on bringing one such data center to southern West Virginia. What do you see as your role in this project and in broader energy efforts? And then what about gas and renewables?
McCuskey: Yes, so the role as it pertains to bringing new data centers to West Virginia is simple. The delta between how much electricity this country produces right now and how much it’s going to consume over the next 10 years has never been greater in the history of our country. And while, you know, renewables and an all of the above approach is a great idea, we do not have the technology or the infrastructure for renewable type energy sources to produce the amount of power that this country is going to need in the time frame it’s going to need it and in a way that is economical, both for businesses and for average citizens.
So the coal and gas is the most reliable, and when given an even playing field, without question, the most economic way of producing electricity in this country. And I believe that it is short-sighted and insane to prevent the easiest and most reliable forms of electricity from existing. All that is to say that that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be investing in and working on finding green energy solutions or sustainable energy solutions, but there, there isn’t a pathway forward if we want to be the nation’s leader in technology and data and artificial intelligence, where non-carbon-based fuels are going to be able to meet that base load.
Bailey: When you’re talking about evening the playing field, are you referring to wanting to challenge or change current EPA regulations around emissions?
McCuskey: Yes.
Bailey: In the vein of Morrisey challenging those in the past, you do see your office, potentially, as continuing in that vein?
McCuskey: I’m super hopeful that we won’t have to. It’s looking like we’re going to have a set of significantly more rational people running both the Energy Department and the EPA. And so hopefully a lot of that change will happen in Washington, and we’re looking forward to working with anybody who is willing to allow the carbon based fuel market to thrive once again.
And I think the important part of all of this is that we won’t, in my opinion, be able to create the kind of low cost energy that will power the revolution of what eventually will be sustainable energy without cheap electricity. And as we can see in every consumer in the state and every consumer around the country can see, our electricity bills are not getting smaller. They’re getting significantly larger, and the less expensive we can make that that expense, both for businesses and consumers, will start to drive the innovation that so many people who oppose fossil fuels are looking for. The other part of this that is really, really important to remember is that the emissions that our power plants are already under have made that sector of energy incredibly clean, and there is no non environmentally unfriendly energy source, right?
If you’re talking about solar, you’re talking about batteries, and you’re talking about an enormous amount of economic impact. And when you’re talking about, you know, things like windmills, you have the same general issues. There is no magic bullet. We have not invented cold fusion yet, and so I think it’s important for us to use what we have at our disposal just to hopefully create another sort of economic renaissance in this country, like we saw in the industrial revolution.
Bailey In your earlier career, you worked for the American Center for Law and Justice, or the ACLJ, which is a conservative Christian organization that, in the past, has opposed same-sex marriage. Would you support any challenges to Obergefell v. Hodges in your role as West Virginia Attorney General?
McCuskey: Obergefell is good law, and it’s not going anywhere. And I think you can see from President Trump’s cabinet picks and cabinet selections that is not a priority for the federal government, nor would it be a priority in my administration.
Bailey: How do you approach defending civil rights in West Virginia more broadly? Are there any priorities as far as either trying to support certain cases or federal challenges that you see going into your administration?
McCuskey: I think one of the things that we need to work on, just in general, is, how do we ensure that the next generation of people understands what their civil rights are? How do we make sure that children understand the constitution that they live under and the ways that they can thrive in this country that, to be fair, are almost all derived by the civil rights that are guaranteed in the Constitution.
Bailey: Would that be any education initiatives from the Attorney General’s office that we could be looking out for?
McCuskey Yes, so we’re very hopeful to work with a lot of members of our law enforcement community to, number one, show that there are great pathways for really smart, really driven kids to get into law enforcement, but also some of the ways that you know, if there is somebody in law enforcement who who might have a negative interaction with somebody, what are the best ways to approach that? What are the best ways for you to protect yourself, protect your rights, and to ensure that the system, as it’s derived, is able to protect you from those kind of interactions. And I have several people on my transition team that we’ve talked to about what are the best pathways to do that.
And I’m really excited about the opportunities to hopefully show kids why it’s a great idea to be a lawyer, why it’s a great idea to be in law enforcement, and that if you do care about civil rights, there is no better profession to get into than either one of them.
Bailey: You were a state delegate before you were the auditor. And in 2016 you joined in sponsoring a bipartisan Second Chance for Employment Act which would allow for some felony convictions to be expunged, and then a version of the bill was passed in the next year. As Attorney General now, how would you balance prosecution choices and the impact that criminal records might have after time has been served?
McCuskey: Sure, so the attorney general in West Virginia doesn’t have any prosecutorial authority. The ways in which we interact with our county prosecutors is that we help them when cases are appealed to courts higher than the circuit court. And so there is nothing specifically that my office can do in that realm, because we don’t have that power. And quite frankly, I am fine with that.
We have a really great group of 55 county prosecutors that I’ve been very proud and happy to work with over the last eight years as auditor. I think the larger question there is we have a substance abuse problem in West Virginia that is starting to maybe take down a little bit, but we can’t close our eyes to the problem, and we can’t always, we can’t always rely on the criminal justice system as the best place for people to get help. And it is my belief that a great job and a job that makes you feel fulfilled and makes you feel like there’s a future is probably the best form of rehabilitation for anybody.
And so everything we can be doing to help people who truly want to be helped, and are doing everything they need to be doing to turn their life around, to ensure we’re doing everything on the other end to give them that opportunity.
Bailey: Current Attorney General Morrisey went from Attorney General to Governor. Would you be seeking higher office in the future? What are your goals looking ahead?
McCuskey: My current goals are to build an Attorney General’s office that has the same level of talent and success that Morrissey has had, ensuring that this office does everything it needs to do to support his efforts in the governor’s office, as well as to protect the citizens of West Virginia, not only from federal overreach, but from all of those who wish for for our success to be thwarted. And you know, the cards will play out where they will. My life is in service, and my parents told me a long time ago that, you know, there is no better way to spend your time than trying to make people’s lives around you better. It’s why I got into this job in the first place, and I will continue to serve in whichever ways the people of West Virginia let me do.
