CHARLESTON, W.Va.— U.S. Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito met Wednesday afternoon with the West Virginia Broadcasting Association to discuss key legislative issues, share their insights on how the new administration may impact our industry and honor Manchin for his service during his political career.
Manchin has done amazing things for the energy industry, and he thinks that the U.S. is on the right path when it comes to energy.
“What we’re doing is the right thing, I think we’re going to continue to do that and we’re going to basically continue to mature this new technology, so I said you cannot eliminate your way to a cleaner environment, but you can innovate with technology, and that’s what we’re doing,” Manchin said.
And since he sees the U.S. going in the right way now, he wants state to continue on that path.
“Just be responsible and be reasonable,” Manchin said. “The bottom line is you got to have the energy it takes to run our great country, every one of our households, our economy and defend our country. You’ve got to have that energy that’s dependable, reliable and affordable, that dispatchable 24/7.”
He wants the new senator to continue to help the energy industry grow because of the bill that he helped passed.
“That’s what we did with the IRA bill, it was designed to produce the energy that we need today,” Manchin said. “We’re producing more oil, more natural gas, more LNG, we’re also investing in more solar and more wind, more battery storage. We’re doing everything that we can. We’re producing more energy than anyone in the world.”
He also said that whoever gets the position should come in willing and able to work with others to help get bills passed.
And Capito brought it back to West Virginia, saying that the state has always been a driving force for the energy industry, which is what she talked about during the Energy Summit Wednesday.
“You know I think West Virginia has always been an energy state, we’ve had a great production on our natural gas and coal, we want to continue that, and we also want to expand into nuclear. So, we talked a lot about that and the opportunities,” Capito said.
Capito also said that she’ll miss Manchin because of their ability to work so well together.
“Well obviously for West Virginia we will have a change, Senator Manchin and I have served together for 10 years, and he’s been there really for 14. You know I’m going to miss my partner; we work well together from opposite sides of the political spectrum, which is good, it’s been good for West Virginia,” Capito said.