To watch a video of Senator Manchin’s opening remarks, please click here.

To watch a video of Senator Manchin’s questioning, please click here.

Washington, DC - U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, discussed the challenges slowing down the adoption of energy efficiency technology across federal buildings. He asked Jason Grumet, President of the Bipartisan Policy Center, about what can be done to establish a set of facts for Congress to work from to address the climate challenges facing the United States and the world.

Senator Manchin asked Grumet how to best ensure all parties are working of the same set of facts to determine what we need to and can accomplish in the next ten years. 

“We are not going to get anywhere if we have the Sierra Club and the Heartland Institute yelling at each other. I think most members of the Republican party believe that climate change is real but tend to avert their eyes when people say it’s not because why pick up the fight. And I think most members of the Democratic party know we are not going to eliminate fossil fuels in 10 years or go to 100% renewables but they kind of avert their eyes because that’s where the energy of the party is and nobody wants to be on the wrong end. And we just end up ceding to the edges. I think this committee fundamentally knows that both those things are wrong and that the answer requires an evidence based approach to both. It’s not popular to say it but the only way we’re going to make progress is if we do,” Grumet answered.

The hearing also featured witnesses from the West Virginia University Energy Institute, U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Futures Initiative, ClearPath, and Council on Competitiveness.

To watch the hearing in full, please click here.  

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