Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), the centrist Democrat who has been highly critical of Biden administration energy policy, released a statement on March 10 in which he called “beyond irresponsible” clean energy czar John Podesta’s remarks that day that Chinese companies will be “big players” in U.S. domestic production of EV batteries.
Podesta made the comments at an event that a renewable energy advocacy organization held.
Manchin, whose serves as chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, voiced particular concern over Podesta referencing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which the senator authored, and the CHIPS Act bills passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden last August as funding sources….