December 06, 2013

Manchin Statement on EPA Administrator's Trip to China

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) today released the following statement on EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy’s trip to China:

“It is unfortunate that Gina McCarthy continues to hold energy hearings across the country and across the world and still refuses to travel to the front lines here in West Virginia. If she wants to discuss how we can clean up the environment and reduce emissions, she should come to our state, where some of our top-producing mines are less than five hours outside of Washington. We have expressed over and over our willingness to have an honest conversation about balancing our energy and environmental needs. If we are going to find the technology, let’s do it here in America and in West Virginia.
 
I understand her decision to travel to China, but while the EPA is focusing their efforts on foreign countries, they are ignoring the pain they are causing hard-working families in mining states like ours, who are being impacted by regulations that are shutting down mines and killing good-paying jobs.  I believe that the lessons that she can learn in Marshall, Boone and Logan counties and every mining county in this state are every bit as important as the ones she will learn in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong. I would hope Ms. McCarthy would ask China’s environment relations what exactly they are doing themselves to secure a balanced economic and environmental future.”