<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1667660442411,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07c3-d172-a563-4feb224a0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1667660442411,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"00000162-07c3-d172-a563-4feb224a0001","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_67660435", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1175461"} }); ","_id":"00000184-484e-d2c9-a9e6-fa5ee2c40000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedCentrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) criticized President Joe Biden for recent comments he made about shutting down coal plants across the country, decrying the idea as being “divorced from reality.”
“President Biden’s comments are not only outrageous and divorced from reality, they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs,” Manchin said in a statement. “Comments like these are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden and instead believes he does not understand the need to have an all in energy policy that would keep our nation totally energy independent and secure.”
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Manchin’s comments come after Biden pledged on Friday to shut down coal plants to replace them with solar and wind electricity, arguing the former is too expensive to operate. Biden’s remarks were quickly met with criticism from Republicans who argued closing the plants would put millions of people out of work.
“Joe Biden celebrates coal plant workers losing their jobs,” the Republican National Committee wrote in a Twitter post.
Biden has long supported transitioning to clean energy, including several climate investments and incentives into his Inflation Reduction Act that was passed in August. Those incentives aim to reduce greenhouse emissions and curb the effects of climate change.
The investment, worth $369 billion, is the largest climate spending package in U.S. history.
Republicans have long criticized Biden’s proposals to move away from coal energy, especially after a report earlier this summer from the Department of Energy showed major job losses in the fuel industry after Biden pledged in his 2020 campaign to transition away from that form of energy.
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Biden addressed concerns about job losses while on the campaign trail in 2020, arguing that coal miners could move into different jobs, such as programming.
“It seems his positions change depending on the audience and the politics of the day,” he added. “Politicizing our nation’s energy policies would only bring higher prices and more pain for the American people.”
