The federal government last week announced a $33 billion natural gas plant that it said would be the “largest natural gas generation project in the world.” The proposed site would be near Portsmouth, Ohio, a city not too far from Huntington, West Virginia.

That, somehow, was news to the mayor of Portsmouth.

“I wasn’t privy to these discussions,” Portsmouth Mayor Charlotte Gordon told The Center Square. “I started calling some of the people I thought should know and they didn’t know.”

That also, somehow, was news to Gov. Mike DeWine.

“We do not have any information on this,” DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney told The Center Square.

A multibillion dollar energy project shouldn’t be news to the chief executives of the city and state where it’s proposed to be built. It should be something everyone should be able to announce together.

Sure, there’s always a possibility of crossed signals. We’ve seen that plenty of times between levels of government. But an announcement of this magnitude needs the proper care. That the city’s mayor and the state’s governor were kept in the dark — and, it seems, continued to be kept in the dark for some time afterward — is just a bad look.

Something like this should serve as a good reminder for all levels of government that the conduits of communication should flow both up and down. A $33 billion dollar project shouldn’t be surprising news to the elected officials who are going to welcome it onto their land. It should be good news that they all should be able to gather together and celebrate.