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Why Virginia Loses Jobs

Watchdog.org

Governor Terry McAuliffe predicts Virginia will have 1.5 million job openings in the next decade -- fueled by the retirement of 900,000 baby boomers.  He hopes to see 600,000 new positions but says it isn't always easy to attract new business to the Commonwealth.  Sandy Hausman has that story.

Governor Terry McAuliffe wants to be known as the man who generates jobs, but he admits Virginia is not always an easy sell.  He recently asked the CEO of Canon to build its global research and development center here and was told …

“I’ve had 18 engineer positions open for 8 months in Virginia, and I can’t fill them, so why would I possibly give you the R&D facility?  I can tell you, as a governor, it’s like someone punched you in the gut.  I went back, I called Tim Sands, President of Virginia Tech, and said I need 18 engineers.”

Speaking to school superintendents, McAuliffe added that Virginia would need to produce more green energy if it wants to attract progressive companies.

“I was just up in Redmond, Washington with Microsoft.  I talked to Jeff Bezos and the folks at Amazon.  They are not going to put anymore facilities in states that cannot provide them with juice from renewable energy – 100% renewable energy.”  

The governor noted that panels used to create a giant solar park on the Eastern Shore were made in Georgia .  McAuliffe told the builder he didn’t like to see that.  The builder pointed out that Virginia didn’t make solar panels. 

Later, the governor repeated his strong support for a natural gas pipeline to supply the state with a cheap source of energy.

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