To view photos of the visit, please click here.

Washington, DC – Last week, U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, traveled to Paris, France, to participate in the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) 2022 Ministerial Meeting, an energy conference made up of industry leaders and representatives from across the globe.

During the conference, Chairman Manchin highlighted the need for strategic partnerships with our friends and allies around the globe to strengthen our collective energy security and reduce our reliance on energy resources and associated raw materials from countries like Russia and China that might use that supply chain dependency against us. The Chairman also urged leaders to take steps to ensure energy-producing communities are at the heart of plans to continue the transition to a cleaner energy future.

Chairman Manchin also traveled to Saint-Paul-les-Durance, France, to tour the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or “ITER,” the world’s first large-scale fusion reactor currently under construction. Chairman Manchin has long supported fusion energy as a valuable resource critical to providing reliable power and addressing climate change. In February, he introduced the Senate’s bipartisan Department of Energy Science for the Future Act, which would support the Department’s Fusion Energy Research division.

“I was honored to have been invited by my good friends Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the IEA, and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who chaired this year’s meeting, to participate in this important conference on energy and climate. It was clear that Putin’s senseless aggression in Ukraine and his weaponization of energy has made countries and industry reconsider the most responsible way to transition our energy systems for the climate and our collective energy security. It is imperative that the United States step in to provide Europe with the energy resources that we are blessed with and they desperately need,” said Chairman Manchin. “Throughout this trip, I was excited to hear from global leaders in the private sector and representatives of countries from around the world that have been shocked into the energy realities by Putin’s war. They understand that the approaches they are taking to ensure a balance between climate and reliable, affordable energy must include technologies like hydrogen, nuclear, and fusion, and require a responsible transition that will include fossil fuels. As Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I will continue to advocate for an all-of-the-above approach to both our energy resources and the technologies to use them in the cleanest way possible to ensure that the United States can step up to the plate to meet our domestic energy needs and those of our allies and partners during this uncertain time and into the future.”

To watch a video of Chairman Manchin at the IEA’s 2022 Ministerial Meeting, please click here.

To find out more about the IEA’s 2022 Ministerial Meeting, please click here.

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