The heads of a leading petroleum industry trade association and an industrial reliability firm on Monday voiced their support for Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., after he said he could not support the Build Back Better Act.
Manchin said over the weekend that he could not vote yes on the bill in its current state despite lengthy negotiations with the White House. Fox News Digital noted that he was previously responsible for getting a ban on offshore drilling removed from the legislation.
''An offshore drilling ban would be a disaster for our country, rolling out the red carpet for Russia and Venezuela to replace 20% of America's daily production and costing Texas alone over 1 million jobs along our Gulf Coast,'' said Jason Modglin, president of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers.
Ryan Sitton, founder and CEO of the reliability firm Pinnacle in Texas, added that a ban on offshore drilling ''simply makes Russia absolutely more powerful'' and would force the U.S. to buy oil from abroad and deal with rising prices.
''When you decrease U.S. oil production, and you put more demand on the world for Russian oil production, it just makes Russia more powerful,'' Sitton said.
Manchin's office did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
President Joe Biden issued a statement last week admitting that the bill was unlikely to pass before Christmas.
''My team and I are having ongoing discussions with Senator Manchin; that work will continue next week,'' Biden said in a statement.
''It takes time to finalize these agreements, prepare the legislative changes and finish all the parliamentary and procedural steps needed to enable a Senate vote. We will advance this work together over the days and weeks ahead. Leader Schumer and I are determined to see the bill successfully on the floor as early as possible,' he said, referring to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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