Manchin: Biden too afraid of climate activists to tout record fossil fuel production

Sen. Joe Manchin III on Monday accused President Biden of downplaying record domestic fossil fuel production because of political pressure from far-left climate activists. 

Mr. Manchin, the conservative West Virginia Democrat who is often a thorn in the side of Mr. Biden, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that America’s “all-of-the-above strategy” on energy is “showing results” and should represent “success.” 

Instead, he suggested Mr. Biden was afraid to embrace publicly the reality that U.S. energy output is booming. 

“It seems some of the president’s radical advisers in the White House are so worried about angering climate activists that they refuse to speak up about these accomplishments,” Mr. Manchin wrote. “The result is that a president who was elected as a centrist is being dragged further and further to the left.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. 

Mr. Manchin also took a swipe at fellow Democrats for not touting record U.S. energy levels, including oil, natural gas and renewables. At more than 13 million barrels per day, the U.S. is producing an all-time high amount of oil.

Conservatives and the fossil fuel industry say record production levels are despite Mr. Biden’s agenda — not because of it. They argue that his climate change policies have a long-term cooling effect on investments in new production, such as his recent decision to suspend new export approvals of U.S. liquified natural gas to other countries. 

Speaker Mike Johnson, speaking in Texas after touring an oil rig to kick off House Republicans’ “Energy Week” focusing on related bills, assailed the president’s energy agenda as bad for allies, the economy and America. 

“The Biden administration — there’s no other way to say this. They’ve had a radical anti-energy agenda,” the Louisiana Republican told reporters. “And it’s not only bad for America, bad for our economy, it’s bad for our allies around the world as well.”

Mr. Manchin is not seeking reelection this fall, a move that will almost certainly hand the seat to Republicans and help them potentially regain the Senate majority.

Though he’s been hypercritical of what he calls Mr. Biden’s “radical” green energy agenda, Mr. Manchin took a victory lap for his involvement crafting Democrats’ tax-and-climate spending law known as the Inflation Reduction Act and his support for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“I’m going to do something you probably haven’t heard me do much in the past three years. I want to congratulate President Biden for the record-breaking energy production we are seeing in America today,” he wrote. “Even in an election year, we cannot allow political division to jeopardize our growing energy independence, our strengthening economy or our national security.”