Ben Marchi, state director of Americans for Prosperity, an anti-tax group that supports limited government and free trade, criticized Greenpeace for trying to halt necessary jobs coming to the region. “I don’t think folks in the Shenandoah Valley who can’t find a job to support their family really care what Greenpeace thinks,” Marchi said. “This plant will provide a paycheck to hardworking Virginians, put food on the table, and provide fiscal prosperity to the community and hundreds of families in the area. The only thing the plant hopefully won’t do is bow to Greenpeace’s lackluster efforts to shutter any and every plant in the nation.”

Americans for Prosperity – Virginia (AFP-VA) today congratulated Governor Bob McDonnell for attracting Mercury Paper to the Strasburg area and, in return, bringing more jobs and further economic prosperity to the Shenandoah Valley. In a statement from their director, AFP-VA said they deplore Greenpeace’s attempt to stifle economic growth in Virginia and the activist group’s effort to halt bringing new, necessary jobs to the region…

• The plant will be the U.S. headquarters for the Mercury Paper, creating 150 new jobs for a region that saw unemployment hit a high of 9.7 percent earlier this year.

• Mercury Paper invested over $21 million in the Strasburg facility, and was opened less than one-month ago by Governor Bob McDonnell.

• These jobs, and the additional employment that will be created through the use of the Virginia Inland Port Authority, were reason for the $250,000 grant issued by the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to assist the region.

• Mercury Paper products are produced and sourced from sustainable and renewable fibers.

The Greenpeace attack comes barely one month after Governor Bob McDonnell cut the ribbon on a $21.2 million expansion ceremony at the Strasburg-based plant. The enlarged facility will become the U.S. headquarters for the company’s paper operations, directly producing 150 new jobs for a region that saw unemployment hit a high of 9.7% earlier this year (1). Those jobs, and additional employment that created through Mercury Paper’s use of the nearby Virginia Inland Port Authority (2), were behind the $250,000 grant issued by the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to assist Shenandoah County with infrastructure, a grant that will pay for itself within six years just from state income tax collections.

Evatran, a subsidiary of MTC Transformers, is the manufacturer of the world’s first “hands-free” electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE). The company intends to invest $3.5 million in a new facility in Wytheville that will manufacture Plugless Power™ charging technology for electric vehicles. State officials said Virginia successfully competed against North Carolina and Ohio for the project. MTC Transformers, founded in Wytheville in 1985, manufactures specialized electrical transformers. It started Evatran in April 2009, but Evatran will separate from MTC Transformers in July.