West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat, is under consideration for energy secretary by President-elect Donald Trump, Politico reports.
Manchin's name is being considered "to show the coal people how serious Trump is about coal," the website quoted one source it described as close to the talks. West Virginia is a major coal producing state, and is one area where Manchin breaks with his party, which has pushed alternative forms of energy such as solar and wind.
Trump was quick to come to the defense of the coal industry after Democrat Hillary Clinton said during the campaign her renewable energy plan would put coal miners out of work.
Manchin told Politico that neither he nor his staff have received any communications from Trump's transition team and he has not scheduled a trip to meet the president-elect.
But he said he would be open to discussing it.
"If I can do anything that would help my state of West Virginia, and my country, I would be happy to talk to anybody," he said. "Other than that, I haven’t heard anything ... I have nothing scheduled."
The Republican Trump has scheduled a meeting on Friday with Democratic North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.
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