Manchin: My Caucus, Biden Can't Grasp That You Need Fossil Fuels or You 'End up Like Germany'

On Wednesday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Kudlow,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) stated, “You cannot be the superpower of the world if you have to depend on other nations to produce your energy” and that he’s in a different spot than his party and President Joe Biden because “they have a hard time coming to grips that you’ve got to use everything you’ve got” or else you “end up like Germany did” and “in one heck of a mess.”

Manchin discussed [relevant remarks begin around 3:10] vows to defend NATO allies and working with allies, and stated, “That’s all good. But…we have to have energy independen[ce]. You cannot be the superpower of the world if you have to depend on other nations to produce your energy. And I’m just in a different place than my caucus or the colleagues or the president and they have a hard time coming to grips that you’ve got to use everything you’ve got. You’ve got to use your gas, you’ve got to use your coal, you’ve got to use your oil, and you have to develop wind and solar and hydro and geothermal and hydrogen. All of these things I’m for. But I’m not going to leave us in a void, Larry, I’m just not going to basically go down that path and end up like Germany did, trying to get something — rid of something that you don’t think you like because you think something else will replace it. And then, when you get to that time period, it doesn’t replace it, so you’re in one heck of a mess.”

He later added, “[I]f you want to do something with an all-in energy policy that does not leave us in a void, then do something that basically uses all of the above, and with the new technology, but basically not leave your fossils out of the mix. Because that’s the horsepower you need to run the superpower of the world.”

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