Even with warmer temperatures at hand, it was just a little more than a week ago that customers in both West Virginia and Ohio were asked to conserve electricity, as a bone-chilling temperature plunge was putting a strain on our power grid. PJM Interconnection, First Energy and Appalachian Power asked customers to do what they could through Christmas morning.

“Demand for electricity is expected to increase through the day as the cold temperatures continue and families gather to celebrate the holiday,” the company said. “PJM will continue to monitor conditions and will take additional actions if necessary, which may include the potential for short, rotating customer outages. Taking action to conserve energy now can help offset the need for additional actions later.”

Yes, energy rationing and rolling blackouts appear to be affecting us now in West Virginia. It took only one winter storm to show we’re not as far from what other parts of the country experience as we think.

The last thing we should be doing here in Appalachia is neglecting the expansion and improvement of our power grid. We have reliable sources of energy — coal and natural gas — in abundance. But the push from some in Washington to move away from those sources is nearing the point where it could leave our state’s residents in the dark.

That’s not acceptable to Gov. Jim Justice, who pointed to the concerns over Christmas by noting the nation needs an all-of-the-above energy policy that continues to keep coal and natural gas power generation in the conversation.

“From the standpoint of the grid, we’re having either an ice storm in Texas and a meltdown a couple of years ago, or we’re having California brownouts one after another in the middle of summer,” Justice said. “Now we’re having an Arctic blast that comes in and before you know it, we’ve got real problems in this country. Why in the world? This is America.

“If we don’t get somebody or somebodies that’s more on their game than this pie in the sky thinking that is flying about from the ultra-left, we’re going to awaken to a weather disaster in this country that is off the chart.”

He’s right.

We have the resources to power our nation in an environmentally safe manner. As we continue our transition toward other forms of power generation, we can’t be so stubborn to leave behind what we know works.