MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Rockwool opponents are pushing back against US Sen. Joe Manchin’s version of their visit to his DC office. Nearly a dozen members of the anti-Rockwool group made the trip to Manchin’s office last week and were arrested.
U.S Capitol Police said the group refused to move out of an entrance way. Manchin said he was trying to squeeze in time away from federal budget talks to meet with the group around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, but they would not wait.
“They were just heck bent on doing what they did and didn’t want to have a meeting where the facts would come out,” Manchin said Friday on ‘Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval’ (audio below).
David Levine from the “Resist Rockwool” movement, said that’s a ‘gross misrepresentation’.
Levine was a guest on MetroNews affiliate WEPM’s ‘Panhandle Live’ Monday to respond to the arrests and comments made by Manchin on Friday’s ‘Talkline’. Levine said his group has been meeting with Manchin’s senior staff since last fall and has presented information from a biologists, physicians, meteorologists and other scientists who support the group’s claim that emissions from the plant could be harmful.
https://www.mixcloud.com/WEPM/sen-manchinresist-rockwools-david-levine-21819/
Manchin said on ‘Talkline’ Friday, the Rockwool issue is going through the courts.
“Rockwool right now is in the court system. The courts are looking at everything that was done. People said they circumvented the process; there was not notices given. That will come out. If they have done all that, then they will not be allowed to move forward.”
Levine said that begs a question for Manchin.
“Are you going to protect our children, or are you going to maintain your stance that if all the boxes were checked, then that’s enough?”
Levine added there is no room for compromise and no way his group would welcome Rockwool.
“No. There’s no way we can open the door to heavily polluting industry.”
Construction on the Ranson site is expected to be finished in 2020.