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West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is on track to win a Senate seat next year — bringing with him a desire to save his family’s coal empire and a history of combining politics with business interests.

As I report today, new details show how Justice pushed a tax break for a coal-burning power plant owned by a company suing one of the governor’s family businesses. Bluestone Energy Sales is part of the Justice family business empire, which is racked with lawsuits, bankruptcies, unpaid bills and fines.

In 2019, Justice leaned on state lawmakers to save Pleasants Power Station with a $12.5 million tax break — but he didn’t disclose that the plant’s owner was suing his family company. The lawsuit was settled in 2021, with the plant’s owner, a subsidiary of utility giant FirstEnergy, settling its claims against Justice’s business for pennies on the dollar.

None of that is illegal in West Virginia, a state with notoriously lax ethics laws. That means Justice — who says he didn’t know about the lawsuit — has faced little scrutiny for his Donald Trump-esque blend of politics and personal business.

Can of worms?

West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s retirement handed Justice, who abandoned the Democratic Party to become a Republican in the Trump era alongside many of his constituents, one of the easiest Senate flips on the 2024 electoral map.

But the tax break and subsequent lawsuit settlement is part of a pattern of potential conflicts of interest that will likely surface as Justice’s political star ascends. Justice has steered tens of thousands of state dollars and tax incentives toward the Greenbrier resort he owns, appointed the state officials tasked with regulating his coal mines and has seen business tax debts get quietly resolved by agencies he controls.

State Democrats are already pushing for an inquiry into the lawsuit settlement, a chorus that could grow if national Democrats push for more scrutiny as well.

“I definitely think it’s an issue, and I think it’s something the citizens of West Virginia deserve to know all the answers to,” state Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin told E&E News. “People deserve to have public servants who are more interested in serving the public than serving themselves.”

It’s Wednesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO’s Power Switch. I’m your host, Scott Waldman. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected].

Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Adam Aton offers an update on the Line 5 oil pipeline, which recently got a key permit in Michigan for a tunnel under the Great Lakes.

Russia goes after energy assets
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed decrees allowing his government to seize and sell off energy assets controlled by countries seen as “unfriendly” to Moscow, Gabriel Gavin writes.

New Russian-run oil companies will be created for shares of the Yuzhno-Russkoye oil and gas field currently held by OMV and Wintershall, energy giants in Austria and Germany, respectively.

Many Western energy companies have withdrawn from Russia since the start of its war against Ukraine in 2022.

Greens’ tough year
Environmental groups are reeling after a year of what should have been a victory lap after helping push climate legislation into law, Robin Bravender writes.

Instead, they have faced layoffs, budget woes and clashes over organized labor.

Groups have spent years organizing around passing a law like the Inflation Reduction Act, said Christy Goldfuss, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council. So it’s natural “that there’s going to be a resetting of priorities and resetting of strategy,” she said.

Senate leaves town
The Senate adjourned for the holidays Tuesday night without finishing work on a supplemental spending package that could have included nearly $3 billion for uranium fuel supplies, write Kevin Bogardus, Emma Dumain and Sean Reilly.

Also left on the cutting-room floor is the nomination of Joe Goffman to lead EPA’s air office. He had been poised for confirmation this week after facing bipartisan opposition in protest of the Biden administration’s rulemaking on climate change.

Flying no more: Bird Global filed for bankruptcy Wednesday. The company, whose electric scooters are used as short-term rentals in over 350 cities, will continue to operate as it restructures.

The next big (huge) thing: Kern County, California, where the oil industry has been a pillar of the economy along with agriculture, is now home to a groundswell of massive warehouses.

A showcase of some of our best subscriber content.

It’s been a year of record clean energy investments boosted by the Inflation Reduction Act, but there are still questions about how the law will be implemented.

The Biden administration netted $382 million in an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ended the year with a win for the developers of the Mountain Valley gas pipeline.

That’s it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.