Sen. Joe Manchin and some Senate colleagues will get a first-hand look today at West Virginia's importance to the future of energy production.
Manchin, D-W.Va., will host Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on a tour of energy production sites in the Mountain State.
"In West Virginia, we truly have an all-of-the-above approach to energy and, for the first time, I am bringing leaders in both parties together to see how our state is an example of how to develop a comprehensive energy policy using all our domestic resources," Manchin said. "I invited the incoming leaders of the powerful Senate Energy Committee to our state to see how we can do it all, and to explain how the country can follow this model."
The senators will tour a variety of sites across the state, including a natural gas Marcellus Shale drilling pad, coal mines, a coal-fired power plant, a wind farm and reclaimed surface mining locations, according to information provided by Manchin's office.
Announced stops today are at the Mount Storm Power Plant in Grant County and a coal mine at the Mountain Laurel Complex in Logan County. On Saturday, the group will convene for a press conference in Charleston.
It is expected Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin will join the senators for a briefing during their tour.
Murkowski is the leading Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resource committee, and Wyden will be the highest-ranking Democrat after the retirement of current Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. The freshman Manchin also is a member of the committee.
