Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is pushing back against his party’s approach to climate change and disagrees with President Biden blaming OPEC for high gas prices while protesters surrounded and blocked his car on Thursday.
Manchin pushes back on Democrats’ climate agenda
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) refuses to fall in line step with the approach by the Democratic Party on climate agenda.
Appearing on MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe’ on Thursday, Manchin ran down a list of things he and the Democrats agreed on in the massive social spending package being debated in the Senate. Manchin said, “We have agreed on childcare…pre-K three and four…in-home services.”
Concerning climate change, Manchin said, “We agree basically on the climate bill that basically uses technology not just eliminating certain fuels, but the technology to use them cleaner so the world will use them cleaner because the world is using more fossil than ever before.”
Manchin calls out Democrats and environmentalists on inaccuracies about climate
However, Manchin called out his own party for inaccuracy regarding whom and what is at fault for climate change.
“My environmental friends will make you believe…that the 500 are polluting the whole world,” Manchin said. “They’re just not being accurate.”
Manchin explained China has 3,000 coal fire plants compared to 500 in the United States, Yahoo reported.
Several news reports, including one by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in early October, outlined that China was building even more coal-fired plants in 2021 and beyond.
Climate protesters surround and block Manchin’s car
In a parking garage in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, climate change protesters blocked the car of Senator Joe Manchin.
The group chanted: “We want to live! We want to live!”
The protesters’ aim was Manchin to support President Biden’s multitrillion-dollar Build Back Better spending package, Fox reported.
A viral video circulating on TikTok claimed Manchin tried to run down the protesters blocking his car during the confrontation.
“We blockaded Joe Manchin’s car, and he tried to run us over,” TikTok user @hungry4climatejustice stated in a video posted on the account.
Manchin disagrees with Biden on cause of skyrocketing gas prices, OPEC not to blame
During an interview with Fox, Manchin advocated that the United States can solve the high cost of fuels on its own.
“Well, I say that we can basically do more for ourself,” Manchin said. “We have been energy independent for the first time in 67 years.”
“Why can’t we do more?” Manchin declared. “Why can’t we produce more?”
“We have got plenty of natural gas,” Manchin continued. “My state, beautiful state of West Virginia, has an ocean of natural gas under it. If they just let us build a pipeline, we could get the product to market.”
“And why don’t we do more drilling, and why don’t we do more basically production in the United States?” Manchin added. “I’m not depending on OPEC. I’m not depending on other countries for my energy anymore… we have the technology. We should be resilient, relying on ourselves.”
The host asked Manchin if he thought Biden was wrong in asserting OPEC is the problem behind high fuel costs.
“I have a difference of opinion,” Manchin replied, avoiding criticism of the president.
