By Daniel Turner
Summer is a season synonymous with vacations, beach trips, fireworks, and cookouts. Thanks to President Biden’s punishing energy policies, this Summer will have another feature: blackouts. Last week, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) warned that roughly two-thirds of the country faced the prospect of power outages. It comes as gasoline prices hit daily record highs and natural gas prices have already doubled this year. All of this can be traced back to Biden’s war on American energy. If it wasn’t for West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, things would be even worse.
Manchin has been the lone Democrat holding back a tidal wave of crippling energy policies. Last Fall, he didn’t budge as President Biden and his progressive allies tried to push their radical Green New Deal through Congress. In a 50-50 split Senate, Manchin heroically didn’t blink when the White House pressured him to cave. Biden’s liberal legislation has stalled ever since.
As the Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Manchin has continuously blasted the administration when they have killed major energy projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline and cancelled major federal oil and gas leases, like the one they just cancelled off the coast of Alaska.
But Manchin’s most important efforts to protect traditional American energy may have come in responding to Biden’s bureaucrats at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). This little-known commission has the authority to greenlight or stall natural gas pipelines and infrastructure projects.
In February, FERC tried to jam through a rule that would have made building future natural gas infrastructure almost impossible. West Virginia, and other states across Appalachia, have huge reserves of natural gas. But that gas cannot move without pipelines.
FERC’s rule came just a week before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. At a time when global energy supplies are extraordinarily short and costs are extraordinarily high, Biden’s lackeys at FERC wanted to make it much harder to build pipelines. That’s bad for America and our allies across the world. Senator Manchin wasn’t going to stand for it.
He immediately called a Senate hearing and criticized FERC for their backdoor attempt to hamstring American energy. During the hearing Manchin said, “To deny or put-up barriers to natural gas projects and the benefits they provide, while Putin is actively and effectively using energy as an economic and political weapon against our allies is just beyond the pale.” He’s right.
The message was clear, and it was received. The next month, FERC pulled back on their effort and said they were taking more feedback. Positive step, no doubt, but that doesn’t mean Biden’s bureaucrats will stop.
Now, West Virginians will need Senator Manchin to stand up again. In late May, Biden renominated Richard Glick to continue as the chairman of FERC. He was the ringleader behind the radical climate policy. If he is confirmed, you can bet he will resurrect it.
Glick’s nomination faces a major hurdle: Joe Manchin’s Senate Committee. In order to be confirmed by the Senate, Glick will need the Senator from West Virginia’s support. Manchin put Glick in his place in March. He shouldn’t let Glick’s nomination move forward now.
That’s why my organization – Power The Future, a group that fights for energy workers – started a petition to let Senator Manchin know that the American people are with him. We now have nearly 30,000 signatures on the petition and the number is growing every single day.
Americans don’t want the stifling energy policies that Biden is pushing on them. Joe Manchin understands that. There’s a reason his approval rating in West Virginia has soared 17 percent in the last year. Joe Manchin is standing up to Joe Biden. We are standing with him.
Daniel Turner (daniel@powerthefuture.com) is the founder and executive director of Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs.
Originally published by RealClearEnergy. Republished with permission.
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For more on Keystone XL pipeline, click here.
For more on FERC, click here.