West Virginia will not receive $140 million in federal funds that the state had applied for as part of a contest for regions that have been recently hit by natural disasters.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin had applied for the funds, administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in connection with several declared disasters in 2012 and 2013, including the derecho and Superstorm Sandy.
The state's application was declared a finalist last June, and Tomblin touted the contest in his State of the State address last week.
The money would have gone to projects in six counties - Boone, Lincoln, Logan, McDowell, Mingo and Wyoming - in the southern coalfields.
"If we're successful, these federal funds will help us rebuild aging infrastructure, promote land use planning and hazard reduction efforts and stimulate housing and economic development in areas outside the region's floodplains," Tomblin said.
But West Virginia was not successful.
The $1 billion in grant money was split among projects in Virginia, Iowa, Louisiana, California, North Dakota, New Jersey, Tennessee, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Tomblin said despite the foregone funding the state would continue to try to redevelop the massive Hobet mountaintop removal mine for other uses, another proposal from his State of the State address.
The hoped-for federal money would have gone to water and sewer projects and flood management, among other proposals.
"We remain committed to our efforts to diversify southern West Virginia's economy and provide opportunities for West Virginians who have called the region home for generations," Tomblin said in a prepared statement.