Manchin Speaks at West Virginia CHamber of Commerce Business Summit
August 31, 2023
White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. – Today, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) spoke at the annual West Virginia Chamber of Commerce Business Summit to discuss the extensive list of bipartisan accomplishments for West Virginia, including investing in our infrastructure, boosting American innovation and manufacturing, and strengthening our energy security.
Senator Manchin also spoke about our nation’s energy production, the need for comprehensive, commonsense permitting reform, and the strength of bipartisanship.
On bipartisan accomplishments for West Virginia:
“In the last four years, $80 billion has come to West Virginia. That’s $22 billion more than we have ever received. Now we have to show what we are going to do with this federal investment. Look at what we have accomplished so far: the Hydrogen Hub, $1.5 billion for broadband, $3.2 billion in our highways which includes the completion of Corridor H, Pleasants Power Station is coming back online as a result of the hydrogen tax credits made available in the Inflation Reduction Act, Form Energy in Weirton again because of the Inflation Reduction Act, we lowered the cost of prescription drugs for the 400,000 West Virginians on Medicare, we capped insulin at $35, and we paid off $238 billion of our debt. There is a lot of good happening and this happened in a divided Congress. Don’t let anyone tell you that we are divided. Don’t let them make you think that you have to pick a side. There is only one side and that’s the American side,” Senator Manchin said in part.
On our nation’s energy production:
“We’re producing more energy in America than we ever have in the history of our country. More fossil, more gas, more oil are produced today. Our coal production is going up with higher prices than ever before. With that, we can walk and chew gum at the same time by producing energy, with fossil, cleaner than anywhere in the world. We are producing 4.6 billion barrels of oil this year, 37 trillion cubic feet of gas, and 13.5 billion cubic feet of LNG that we are producing and shipping off to help our allies around the world. When this Ukraine war started, Putin weaponized energy so we had to change and we did,” Senator Manchin continued.
On the need for permitting reform:
“While we made much-needed changes to the NEPA, we need to make more changes to our permitting process. Because if we don’t, all of the bipartisan accomplishments I discussed before will be for nothing. It’s going to be tough, but we were able to rise to the occasion before and I believe we can do it again,” Senator Manchin stated.
On the strength of bipartisanship:
“This is the greatest country on earth. If we’ve proven that can get meaningful, historic bipartisan legislation done under abnormal times, just think about what we can do if we work together in the “normal” times. This country doesn’t work unless we are all pulling in the same direction. When someone tells you that America has seen her better days, you can tell that we have just begun and the better days are here to come,” Senator Manchin concluded.