“You cannot eliminate your way to a cleaner environment. You can innovate your way. That is the difference in some people’s aspirational goals,” Manchin told the Washington Examiner .
Manchin, a third-term Senator from the coal state of West Virginia, has just been promoted from ranking member to the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and his leadership will help shape the Biden administration’s climate change policies.
Biden has embraced the Green New Deal pushed by the progressive arm of the party and announced that his administration will follow its framework to “ensure the U.S. achieves a 100% clean energy economy and reaches net-zero emissions no later than 2050.” In addition, the Biden plan calls for “climate justice” and penalizing companies that pollute with fossil fuels.
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Manchin claimed that he is not opposed to supporting the Biden climate policies but he will look at the feasibility of the policy and make a moderate choice: “Anything we pass sure as heck should be feasible. Just setting an artificial date doesn’t always work. You have to have faith in American ingenuity.”
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Manchin warned his party to not overlook those whose livelihoods come from fossil fuel as the Biden administration transitions to newer forms of energy like water, solar, and wind.
“I trust President-elect Biden will be very sympathetic to the hard work and values all these hard-working people have given this country and do everything possible for these people to live and provide for their families,” Manchin said. “We have to find a way to make that happen. It’s a way to build trust in rural areas that are very skeptical of Democrats.”
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The main goal of the Green New Deal is to bring U.S. greenhouse gas emissions down to net-zero and meet 100 percent of power demand in the country through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources by 2030.
“In this country, you run your life, you run your business from the middle, not from the fringes. And that’s where I’ve always been,” he told fox news after voting against the Democrat climate package.
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“I have said it before: man made climate change is real, and it’s a serious threat to our citizens, to our economy, to our environment, to our national security, and to our world. This climate problem is a massive one and we must act, but aspirational documents will not solve this crisis—real solutions focused on innovation will,” Manchin stated.
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He additionally said that he seeks to find ways to incentivize countries like China and India to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
“The truth is even if we zero out our country’s use of fossil fuels tomorrow, we must face the facts that other nations have invested in and will continue to use fossil fuels to develop their economies for decades to come.”
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