Southeast

West Virginia

Though West Virginia is one of the 10 smallest states in land size, it produced 6% of the country’s energy supply in 2021. The state is home to significant natural gas and coal reserves, which are major contributors to West Virginia's GDP. West Virginia is the fourth-largest natural gas producing state, but it uses a relatively small amount of the gas it produces — less than 10% in 2022. West Virginia is the country’s second-largest coal producer, but because of a national decline in coal-fired electricity, production in 2022 was around half of what it was in 2001.

Governor

Patrick Morrisey (Republican)

House Party

Republican Supermajority

Senate Party

Republican Supermajority

Legislative session

2/12/25 - 4/12/25

Key Offices & Links

3

Policies Enacted or In Progress

across 2 policy areas

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59

Policy Opportunities

across 7 policy areas

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Southeast

14 states

This map shows the occurrence of climate policies passed at the state-level. Higher numbers represent more climate policies enacted.

Compare with other states

Progress by Policy Area

Enacted Enacted policies have been passed or established in a state by a governing body via legislation, executive orders, rules, regulations, and/or other program creation, and remain in effect.
In-progress In progress policies have been established in a state, but final regulations, rules, or plans are pending final approval. This also includes legislation and executive orders that require regulations to be put into effect.
Partially Enacted Partially enacted policies have been enacted in the state, but are missing one or more policy components. Dashboard policies cannot be considered partially enacted unless policy components are available.
Not Enacted Not enacted policies have not been passed or established in the state or are no longer in effect.

Glossary of Terms

The colored bars indicate the status for each policy on the Dashboard, viewed across seven policy areas.

Status	Policy	Policy Area	Policy Category	Year Enacted
Enacted	Residential Energy Codes	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Codes	2022
Empty column	The statewide energy code for residential construction is 2015 IECC with amendments.	Establishing Policies West Virginia State Energy Code (2022)
Enacted	Commercial Energy Codes	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Codes	2019
Empty column	The statewide energy code for commercial building construction is ASHRAE 90.1 2013.	Establishing Policies West Virginia State Energy Code (2019)
Not Enacted	Stretch Building Energy Codes	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Codes
Empty column	Stretch building energy codes are an optional, more stringent building code established by the state that local jurisdictions can adopt to require that newly constructed buildings are more efficient than the baseline state codes.
Not Enacted	Appliance Standards	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Standards
Empty column	Appliance standards set minimum energy and water conservation requirements for appliances and equipment.
Not Enacted	Building Performance Standards	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Standards
Empty column	Building performance standards establish energy and/or greenhouse gas performance targets for existing buildings in a state. These targets increase in stringency over time, leading to efficiency improvements in buildings to conserve energy and reduce emissions.
Not Enacted	Clean Heat Standards	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Standards
Empty column	Clean heat standards establish a performance standard requiring heat providers to deliver a gradually-increasing percentage of low-emission heating services to customers.
Not Enacted	Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS)	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Efficiency
Empty column	Energy efficiency resource standards (EERS) establish targets and deadlines for utilities to reduce electricity demand through efficiency or "demand side" programs.
Not Enacted	Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE)	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Efficiency
Empty column	Property assessed clean energy (PACE) allows residential and/or commercial property owners to finance efficiency upgrades with loans tied to the property.
Partially Enacted	Weatherization Funding	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Efficiency
Empty column	The State Policy Opportunity Tracker (SPOT) breaks clean energy policies down into “components”, which are binary questions to evaluate policy quality. Higher quality policies have more of their SPOT components fulfilled.	Establishing Policies SPOT - Weatherization Funding in West Virginia	Policy Components not-enacted enacted enacted not-enacted 2/4
Not Enacted	All-Electric Buildings	Buildings and Efficiency	Building Electrification
Empty column	All-electric buildings policies require new buildings to be constructed with all-electric heating, cooling, and cooking systems to transition away from fossil-fuel use in buildings.

West Virginia

Key Offices & Links

3

59

Southeast

Progress by Policy Area

Climate Governance and Equity

Cross-Sector

Electricity

Buildings and Efficiency

Transportation

Industry, Materials, and Waste Management

Natural and Working Lands

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Projections in West Virginia

Climate Policies in West Virginia