CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- State Division of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joe Miller and his employees are catching a lot of grief over the identification now required to renew your West Virginia driver's license or get a new one.

Miller has repeatedly emphasized that the federal government established the strict new "Real ID" requirements, which went into effect in West Virginia on Jan. 3.

To repeat Miller's quote from a December column, "Seven of the [Sept. 11, 2001] terrorists had authentic driver's licenses that were fraudulently obtained. Here's a true example of a few bad guys making it burdensome for 1.4 million people in West Virginia."

No doubt it's difficult for some folks to gather up the proper proof of identification, proof of Social Security number and proof of residency. But it could be worse.

According to a press release issued Monday by the Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, states must begin reforming their driver's license rules "or their residents will need to start getting passports in order to board commercial airlines."

Obtaining a passport not only takes time, it costs $140.

I asked West Virginia DMV spokeswoman Natalie Harvey if it is true citizens in states that don't comply with the federal law might eventually be required to show a passport to get on a commercial airline.

"If a person does not have the 'Real ID' or the 'For Federal Identification' ID card, yes, they will eventually need something -- either a passport or a birth certificate and something else to board the airplane," she said.

"That's why we're moving toward this quickly and trying to stay ahead of the game," Harvey said.

"We want to be able to help our customers, but we also need to remind folks that we're doing this because of the federal guidelines, because of 9/11. We have to be able to verify who you are."

Harvey believes the federal government eventually will provide a list of documents that will be acceptable if an individual doesn't come to airport security with a 'Real ID' or 'For Federal Identification' card.

"We're looking at 2016 or 2017" for the federal government to complete this tightening up, Harvey said.

The Coalition for a Secure Driver's License said West Virginia, Indiana, South Dakota, Delaware, Connecticut, Utah, Alabama, Ohio and Florida have been certified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as compliant with federal Real ID standards.

But a dozen states "have done little or nothing" and they "had best start looking at the calendar," the coalition said.

The coalition describes itself as a "non-partisan, not for profit, crime prevention, educational charity based in Washington, D.C."

 According to the coalition, its central purpose "is to raise public awareness that weak state systems for issuing driver's licenses and IDs increase the risk from foreign terrorists and domestic criminals who can fraudulently assume new identities to escape detection by law enforcement."

Reach George Hohmann at busin...@dailymail.com or 304-348-4836.