By Mike Tony
For HDMedia
Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., has had a tremendous influence over the electric rates West Virginians pay via his appointments to the state Public Service Commission.
As governor, the coal magnate appointed all three current PSC commissioners who have overseen sharply increasing rates at utilities’ requests in recent years: law practice business management veteran Renee Larrick in 2017, previous commissioner and former FirstEnergy lobbyist Charlotte Lane in 2021, and longtime former West Virginia Coal Association president Bill Raney in 2021.
Now, Justice’s shadow will loom even larger over West Virginia’s electric rate landscape.
American Electric Power on Tuesday named Brian Abraham — Justice’s longtime chief of staff during his time as governor and senator — president and chief operating officer of Appalachian Power, effective April 13.
AEP said in an announcement it made the move “to align with the company’s strategy to strengthen relationships with key stakeholders across its service territory.”
“As a West Virginia native, I understand both the region and the responsibility that comes with serving our communities,” Abraham said in an AEP news release. “I look forward to working with the APCo team to listen to and work with our stakeholders to create affordable energy solutions that best fit the needs of our communities in Appalachia and generate opportunity for our customers.”
Abraham did not respond to a request for comment. Appalachian Power also did not make him available for comment upon request.
Justice congratulated Abraham on social media Tuesday, saying Abraham “has been a rock on my team.”
“Working alongside him as Governor and now as Senator was a privilege,” Justice said. “I’m proud to say our friendship goes far beyond the office — I’ll always be in his corner.”
AEP touts Abraham’s litigation background
Unlike his immediate predecessors, Abraham does not come to the role of president of Appalachian Power from within the company or with an extensive energy background. Abraham was appointed chief of staff during Justice’s second term as governor of West Virginia and stayed in that role after Justice became senator. Abraham previously had been general counsel for the Justice administration.
AEP in its Tuesday news release touted Abraham’s litigation experience, recalling he was prosecuting attorney for Logan County from 1999 to 2009 and special assistant United States attorney for Kentucky and Tennessee.
Abraham will take the reins from Aaron Walker, who became president and chief operating officer of Appalachian Power in September 2022 after serving as vice president of distribution operations for the company. Before becoming company president, Walker had been responsible for construction, engineering, maintenance and operation of the company’s electric distribution systems and previously managed AEP’s coal-fired Rockport Plant in Indiana.
Walker’s predecessor, Chris Beam, had been vice president of projects, controls and construction, responsible for all aspects of project management, project controls, commissioning and construction activities within AEP’s generation unit.
Abraham will report to Bill Fehrman, AEP chairman, president and chief executive officer.
“Brian’s legal and public policy expertise, deep commitment to Appalachia and established partnerships within the region will bring a fresh perspective,” Fehrman said in a company statement, calling Abraham “the right choice” to lead nearly 2,900 employees in Appalachian Power’s territory spanning West Virginia, Virginia and Tennessee.
Under Walker, the average monthly residential bill for Appalachian Power based on 1,000 kilowatt-hours use increased from $162.43 at the start of 2023 to $176.42 at the beginning of this year — an 8.6% climb less steep than the 26.7% increase that customers experienced over the previous three years.
Appalachian Power told the Gazette-Mail Wednesday it has one coal supply agreement with a Justice coal affiliate which was entered into in 2024. The company declined to provide further information, saying it doesn’t share terms of contractual agreements with suppliers.
Abraham was a visible member of the Justice administration while Justice was governor, telling the media in 2023 that two high-ranking administration officials were fired after a federal judge condemned their roles in what he concluded was the state intentionally destroying evidence in a class-action lawsuit alleging inhumane conditions at the government-run Southern Regional Jail and Correctional Facility in Raleigh County.
Abraham denied the judge’s conclusion that state officials destroyed paper evidence. But following his finding, state officials agreed to pay $4 million to settle their part in the lawsuit.
In 2024, Abraham defended state agencies’ response in handling the case of a Boone County teenager whose body was found in a “skeletal” state that April. Julie Miller, the mother of the 14-year-old, Kyneddi Miller, was sentenced in February 2026 to up to life in prison in her daughter’s death.
APCo net income up, reliability low
Appalachian Power officials have attributed what they’ve said is a need to raise rates in part to a declining customer base from which to collect revenue for infrastructure upgrades.
But AEP said in a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing its revenue for Appalachian Power and subsidiaries increased $176 million in 2025, with a net income of $457 million up 8.3% from $422 million netted the previous year.
Appalachian Power has repeatedly failed in recent years to meet electric reliability targets set by West Virginia utility regulators, with exceptionally poor metrics for power outage duration.
Appalachian Power’s West Virginia coverage area ranked in the highest 6% of all 967 listed utilities nationwide in outage minutes per year in 2023, according to a Gazette-Mail review of U.S. Energy Information Administration data.
The company affirmed its commitment to long-term use of its two coal-fired plants in Mason and Putnam counties in a long-term energy portfolio plan it filed with the PSC in October – roughly 2.5 years after Justice gave his blessing to four coal industry-backed bills at a bill-signing ceremony at Appalachian Power’s coal-fired John Amos Power Plant in Putnam County.
One of the bills Justice signed into law, Senate Bill 609 of 2023, requires approval from a board Justice rebooted, the Public Energy Authority, to develop coal plants for any fossil fuel-powered plant to be decommissioned or deconstructed.
“Basically, in a nutshell, what we’re doing here is just saying — it’s just as simple as this — we’re not going to just take some environmental whatever and shut stuff down in West Virginia,” Justice said. “We’re just not going to do it. We’re going to have our Public Energy Authority, which is our wisdom now in place … we’re not going to allow that without their approval.”
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