Manchin: Russia Wouldn’t Have Started War if They ‘Didn’t Have This Type of Advantage’ on Energy, You Can’t Just Eliminate Fossil Fuel

On West Virginia MetroNews’ “Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval” on Monday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said that you can’t just cut off fossil fuels and doing so would put the U.S. in the same position as Germany. Manchin also argued that the war in Ukraine wouldn’t have happened if Putin “didn’t have this type of advantage in what he’s holding over everyone’s head” on energy.

Manchin stated that there should be investments in technologies to decrease carbon emissions, “But you cannot get rid of what I call the horsepower of energy, which is your coal, your natural gas, and the nukes that are going to be needed, and oil that we need. And the oil’s going to be [used], so why shouldn’t we develop the technology that uses it cleaner? And then, go down a parallel path, a parallel path with technology, advancing that and a parallel path with making sure we have sustainable horsepower for fossil fuel that will give us the reliability. … I’m trying to put together what we call a North American energy alliance. The North American continent can be the energy capital of the world and do it cleaner and better and set a standard for the whole world. That’s what we should be doing, but people that are denying and saying, oh, we don’t want fossil at all, stop it today, we’ll end up like Germany and where Europe’s caught in a crunch right now.”

He added, “[Y]ou can’t do it by just cutting it off. It won’t work, Hoppy. We wouldn’t be in a war right now, in Putin’s war with Ukraine if he didn’t have this type of advantage in what he’s holding over everyone’s head.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett