Donna Boley Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Presentation: Pleasant Plant’s Hydrogen Conversion Still Involves Coal

Burning hydrogen emits no carbon dioxide. However, the source of that hydrogen at Pleasants will still be coal.

A state Senate committee heard new details Wednesday about how the Pleasants Power Station will be converted from coal to hydrogen.

Pleasants is a 1,300-megawatt power plant along the Ohio River north of Parkersburg. Its coal-fired boilers went cold in June when its then-owner, Energy Harbor, shut them down.

But state lawmakers, including Sen. Donna Boley, a Pleasants County Republican, fought to save the plant from closure.

Not long after the plant went idle, a California company called Omnis Technology stepped in.

Omnis reactivated the plant. The ultimate goal, though, is to produce graphite on the site and use the hydrogen byproduct to generate electricity.

Burning hydrogen emits no carbon dioxide. However, the source of that hydrogen at Pleasants will still be coal.

Steve Winberg, the former Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy in the Trump administration, explained to the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee how the process would work.

“Their goal is to convert Pleasants from coal to 100 percent hydrogen, and then make the hydrogen from the coal. So, at a minimum, we’ll see the same amount of coal going to Pleasants, but it will be converted to hydrogen, and then the hydrogen will be burned in the boiler. So, there’s going to have to be a retrofit on that boiler to allow it to burn hydrogen and still maintain the 600 megawatts that it’s capable of maintaining or producing.”

Winberg explained to the committee that the technology is emerging. It requires heating the coal to 3,000 degrees Celsius. The bar the process has to clear is producing hydrogen that’s cheaper than natural gas.

“If this technology works, it will be cost competitive with natural gas. And so proof is in the pudding, we’ll see if they’re able to get it to work at 3,000 degrees. But if they do, it’s a pretty intriguing technology.”

Omnis is investing $800 million into the facility. If successful, it will need 600 workers to operate in addition to the 160 who run the current plant.

Constitutional Questions Surround Justice Appointment

The West Virginia Constitution prohibits legislators from being appointed to any position created under a law passed during their term of office.

On Aug. 30, Gov. Jim Justice appointed then Del. Mike Honaker, R-Greenbrier, to serve in the legislatively created position of Inspector General for the state Department of Homeland Security. Honaker immediately resigned his position in the House of Delegates.

The position was created by passing House Bill 3360 in the 2023 regular West Virginia Legislative session.

In an interview with West Virginia Public Broadcasting following the apparent appointment, Honaker said his primary duty is to conduct inquiries and, where needed, full scope investigations involving agencies that include the state Department of Corrections and the West Virginia State Police. He said he will work with the Corrections Inspector General on the many allegations and lawsuits facing that department and conduct his own prison inspection tour.

“My work is when there are allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and maybe even matters that rise to a level of criminal investigation,” Honaker said in the interview.

When he was asked about taking the position he had just voted on, he said that was never discussed or considered.

“Absolutely not,” Honaker said. “It was never discussed, and never occurred to me.”

However, Article VI, Sec 15 of the West Virginia Constitution prohibits legislators from being appointed to any position created under a law passed during their term of office.

In a written statement, responding to an inquiry about the appointment, Justice’s Press Secretary C.J. Harvey said: “Mike Honaker was hired into an existing position within the Secretary of Homeland Security’s office as inspector general, rather than formally appointed to the statutorily created position as head of the Office of Inspector General. The governor believes Honaker to be the best man to serve in this role, and intends to formally appoint him to the statutorily created position at a later date.”

Honaker spent nearly three decades in numerous positions with the Virginia State Police, including special agent in charge of a division of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Richmond, Justice‘s office said in a press release. Honaker later served as the Greenbrier County Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and Director of the Greenbrier County 911 Center.

That appointment will have to go through the Senate, beginning with the Committee on Confirmations. Sen. Donna Boley, R-Pleasants, chairs the committee. In an interview just after learning of the constitutional confusion, Boley said the issue will be investigated.

“It’s unconstitutional for a delegate or senator to vote on something that he later benefits from,” Boley said. “The governor may be right. I don’t know, at this stage.”

Boley said there is a legal question to consider and she hasn’t spoken to the rest of the committee.

“We have good communications between the governor’s office and the Senate,” Boley said. “Normally, if something comes up that most of the committee members are opposed to, we’ll ask the governor to pull that nomination. I just don’t know at this point in time whether that’ll happen or not.”

The Inspector General position created in the statute covers all the agencies that are under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security. Those include West Virginia State Police, Division of Corrections, Fire Marshal’s Office, Parole Board, the Division of Emergency Management, the Division of Justice and Community Services.

Donna Boley, The Longest Serving State Senator

Since Boley first started working in the state Senate there has been seven governors and seven US presidents.

In 1991, Donna Boley was the only Republican in the state Senate. Now she is part of a Republican supermajority in the West Virginia Legislature.

Boley, of Pleasants County, was appointed by Republican Gov. Arch Moore in 1985. She has been elected 11 times since then and is the longest serving senator in the state’s history.

“It never dawned on me that we would become a majority or supermajority,” Boley said.

Many of her past colleagues, sick of having so little political power, decided not to run again — leaving her the only Republican in the Senate for a couple years.

“They just decided that at the last minute they weren’t going to run, because they didn’t like being in the minority,” Boley said. “So, I guess if they didn’t like being in the minority, they just walked away.”

But Boley stayed. For many years, she said she was the only “no” vote.

“I never had a problem being in the minority because I always thought we would be the minority,” Boley said.

Donna Boley was sworn in by Gov. Arch Moore on May 14, 1985.

*Courtesy*

However, throughout the 2000s and 2010s, more and more Republicans won.

“Everything sort of changed in 2014,” she said.

After the 2014 midterm, the Senate officially flipped. Seventeen Republicans were elected, and 17 Democrats were elected.

While some officials were trying to figure out who would be the Senate President, others were trying to find a senator who was willing to switch to another party — and bring with them majority control.

That senator was Danial Hall of Wyoming County. After being elected as a Democrat, he switched.

“It made the (tally) 18 to 16. So, we took over that night,” Boley said.

The close split between the parties didn’t last long. By 2020, Republicans had a supermajority, meaning they occupied two-thirds of the seats in both the House and Senate.

For Boley and other Republicans, this was the beginning of a new era for Republicans in West Virginia. But unlike many of her colleagues, Boley had been around to see the limitations and challenges that supermajorities face from watching how the Democrats used their once vast powers.

“You tend to start fighting amongst yourself,” she said.

Last session, Republicans did fight among themselves. Republican Sen. Robert Karnes of Randolph County was removed from the Senate chamber after he demanded some of the bills be read in full — a tactic occasionally used in the legislature to use up a lot of time and to make a political point.

Boley also has some wisdom to pass down to her Democratic colleagues.

“Well, the minority leader now is Sen. (Mike) Woelfel. And he stopped me during the regular session and said, ‘I need to talk to you. It looks like I might be appearing next year as the lone Democrat.’ And I said, ‘Well you know, just enjoy it. There is not much you can do except stand up and vote no. If you don’t agree with it, just vote no,” Boley said.

And that’s what Boley did, and said she will continue to do until she is ready to retire — which she said she doesn’t plan on doing currently.

Outside work, Boley loves to spend time with her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. She said she tries to see them as much as possible. She loves her work in the legislature and said she is grateful she stayed — even when she was the only one.