Bowerbank Says Nation On Verge of New Economy

ABINGDON, Va. – The Russell County, Va., man running for lieutenant governor talks about economic development as if it were his job. In a sense, he said, it already is.

Jon Bowerbank, a 49-year-old energy industry entrepreneur and member of the Russell County Board of Supervisors, said even amid the economic turmoil, the nation is on the verge of a new economy.

“I think when you get that thing kick-started, it will spin off all kinds of jobs and opportunities for people,” Bowerbank said of the growth to come in the energy sector. “They’ll be able to make a better quality of life, better standard of life.”

Bowerbank, who lives in the Russell County community of Rosedale, is one of four Democrats seeking the party’s nomination in the June 9 primary and the only candidate from far Southwest Virginia who is seeking statewide office this year.

The three other Democrats seeking the lieutenant governor’s post are Pat Edmonson and Jody Wagner, both of Virginia Beach, and Mike Signer, of Arlington. Two Republicans also are seeking the seat, including incumbent Bill Bolling, of Hanover County, and Patrick Muldoon, of Giles County. Bolling, first elected to public office in 1991 as a Hanover County supervisor, has served as Virginia’s lieutenant governor since 2006.

Steve Banner, chairman of the Russell County Democratic Committee, said he believes Bowerbank will win the job – and will provide long-needed representation for the Southwest Virginia at the executive level of state government.

“Certainly it will bring more emphasis to the coalfields and to the rural areas of Virginia to have one of our own sitting in the state government offices,” Banner said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had any representation … and I think it would be a great change of pace. Somebody needs to look after our needs for a change.”

Bowerbank, a political newcomer, was elected to the Russell County Board of Supervisors as an independent in 2007. He moved to Southwest Virginia in 1994 after a temporary assignment brought him here to work with the fledgling natural gas industry – and he stayed to build a company that currently employs about 175.

He said he predicted the expansion that has taken place in the natural gas industry in the region over the past 15 years – and he sees the same in the next 15. He believes gas will be the “bridge fuel” between coal and renewables as the nation broadens its energy portfolio.

Meanwhile, Bowerbank said, he wants Virginia’s new power plants in Wise County and elsewhere to be “the flagship of clean coal technology.”

“I want folks to have to come to Virginia to learn how to more efficiently extract and utilize coal for electrical generation,” he said.

His company, Energy Management and Technical Support , provides “build and design services for the natural gas and public utility industries.” In other words, he said, it does “anything that requires excavation and then putting things in the ground and covering back up.”

Bowerbank said job creation is his specialty – and it’s a set of skills he’d like to bring to Richmond full time. His focus would be the industry where he’s spent 25 years: energy.

Virginia is well positioned geographically, he said, not just to be at the forefront of developing clean coal and natural gas technology, but also for renewable resources such as wind, sun and ocean currents.

A lot of these “green-collar jobs” can be brought here to Southwest and Southside Virginia, where the punch of the nation’s economic downturn is being felt in increasing unemployment rates, Bowerbank said.

And while he believes firmly in keeping a public safety net, Bowerbank said, he has personally seen people go from being welfare recipients to successful employees of his company – and he wants to help more people in Southwest Virginia become a part of the solution to the nation’s economic troubles.

“It’s just getting that seed planted and nurturing it and getting it out of the ground,” Bowerbank said. “It’s not a panacea, but you work with folks and give them the opportunity, give them the tools to work with, it’s amazing what they can build for themselves.”

An immigrant who came to the United States from England at the age of 11, Bowerbank said he has personally experienced the American dream.

“With any problem that comes, there’s a potential solution, and something good can come out of it,” he said. “I think for anyone who is willing to work hard and persevere, the opportunities are still great and significant in this country.”

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