CHARLESTON, W.Va. — U.S. Senator Joe Manchin believes the soon-to-be-in-control Republicans in the state legislature could use their time more wisely. Manchin said energy to repeal The Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio Act could be used better elsewhere.
“They have the mantle now and they can set the agenda probably to whatever suits them best, I understand that, but to call it (the portfolio act) a cap and trade they know that’s disingenuous and I’m just saying we don’t need that political rhetoric here especially when it’s inaccurate and it’s just not even truthful to be honest with you,” Sen. Manchin said Thursday on MetroNews Talkline.
House Speaker-elect Tim Armstead said back on Monday the first thing the new Republican majority in the House and state Senate would do when the legislative session begins in January is to repeal what they believe is a cap and trade law.
“We think it not only has devastating impact on our energy sector, our coal jobs in our state, but also it will result in increased utility rates for our citizens and we need to stop that,” Armstead said Monday on Talkline. “One of the first things we’re going to do is repeal that bill.”
The act requires for power generation to decrease to 75 percent from traditional sources by 2025.
Sen. Manchin, who was governor when the bill was passed, said what the law really does is protect coal including it in the energy portfolio of electric utilities.
“We want to make sure that coal was able to be written into the portfolio to be used. We’re the only state that basically did that,” Manchin said Thursday. “All the rest of the states basically said they (electric utilities) had to trade and transform.”
The law requires the utilities to have 10 percent of their power generation from alternative sources by 2015. Manchin said the utilities have already met that and neither coal nor customers’ bills have been impacted.
“We were told when we wrote the bill–we had coal producers and coal users–that this would not do anything except highlight that you can use fossil, that you can use coal in your whole energy portfolio. We’ve always believed in an all-in energy policy.”
Manchin said Republicans could better use their time trying to address the state’s drug problem and increase the low participation numbers in the workforce. Manchin said the legislature could also work harder to make sure more coal is being used.
“Why would you politicize something that basically was bipartisan before? It was fine then,” Manchin said.