During an interview with NBC News on Wednesday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said that while American drilling has gone up, it was difficult to get that done and the Biden administration “had to” allow that to happen because Congress forced them to do so.
Manchin stated, “[I]t’s to the point now, we want to bring everything back to America, all the building blocks. Now, whether it be electric vehicles, things of that sort, that’s fine. But let’s make sure that we can support ourselves in doing it.”
He continued, “I basically said this, when Henry Ford started with the assembly line, the Model T, I don’t remember going out and saying, well, the government’s got to build the filling stations. If the government doesn’t build filling stations, we can’t invent the car, we can’t basically mass produce. … It’s the market. It’s capitalism. It’s the market. So, if you take that concept, and now, all of a sudden, we’ve got to build — the government’s got to do everything for you. And that’s the problem I have.”
Manchin added, “We have — we’re producing more energy today than we ever have. You don’t hear this administration talking about energy security. … You can walk and chew gum in America. It’s the United States of America.”
“Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker then said, “The U.S. did have its best drilling month of the year last month.”
Manchin then cut in to say, “You know how hard that’s been to get that done?”
Welker then asked, “Does the President deserve some credit for that?”
Manchin answered, “Well, yeah, they had to let it happen because we forced it in the bill. We wrote the bill to where you have to have a balanced approach.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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