Energy bills in the state of
West Virginia where Joe Manchin
happens to be a senator have
been rising, the skyrocketing,
astronomical energy bills.
Why?
Well, it's because of the fact that
the country overall is moving away
from energy sources or fossil fuels
like coal and moving toward
renewable energy or natural gas.
And that has caused a pretty
terrible situation for the people
of West Virginia, the so called
ratepayers, meaning the people who
have to pay their energy bill.
Now the residential electricity
rates of Ohio based American
Electric Powers West Virginia
subsidiaries have risen 122% over
the last 13 years from an average
of $62.46 per month in 2008
to $138.57 per month in 2021, okay?
So what's going on?
Why is their energy bill going up
so rapidly?
Well, there have been regulations
that force coal plants, for
instance, to make some upgrades,
updates for instance,
that would lessen the amount of CO2
that's being outputted.
Now, as America has largely
transitioned away from coal
fired power, West Virginia has
thrown its weight behind it.
The state is the second largest
coal producer in the country.
And coal generates nearly 89% of
its electricity compared to
just 19% nationwide,
a steep fall from 1990 when coal
powered 52% of US electricity.
So coal is actually become more
expensive compared to other
renewable energy sources or
natural gas, for instance.
And so the prices for
coal have actually gone down.
I'm sorry, the price for
renewable energy has gone down.
The price for coal has gone up and
that cost is transferred over
to the people of West Virginia.
So AEP's three-coal fired power
plants in West Virginia are in need
of $448 million worth of mandatory
upgrades in order to remain
federally compliant, causing
electricity rates to increase by
3.3% starting in September of 2022.
Now these upgrades would allow
the plants to stay open until
2040 rather than being shut down in
2028.
Now understand, it would actually
be far cheaper for
them to avoid doing those upgrades.
Just let those coal power plants
just shut down while taking federal
government incentives to switch
over to other forms of energy,
like renewable energy.
But people like Tom Manchin
don't want it.
Sean O'Leary, a senior researcher
at nonprofit and clean-energy think
tank, Ohio River Valley Institute,
told CNN, the utilities could save
ratepayers $317 million by retiring
the coal plants in 2028, pointing
to AEP's own data showing the cost
to keep the plants open until 2040.
So why don't they go in that
direction?
It's because there are local
lawmakers in the state of
West Virginia who want to keep
the system going the way it is.
And then, of course,
you have people like Joe Manchin
who's literally personally invested
in the coal industry.
Last year alone he made half
a million dollars off of
Enersystems, a company he founded
that his son is now in control of.
He made $500 million off of that,
$500,000 off of that
last year alone.
>> Yeah, so
TYT showed that he's made over $5
million from that company alone,
at a minimum, okay?
That's the ones we could track
publicly.
So he's got at least 5 million
reasons to want to block
the sensible way to go, and
one that would actually save
taxpayers money.
Now he claims that he wants to save
taxpayers money.
He says that all the time, never
when Republicans are in charge.
But when Democrats get in charge
and all of a sudden you want to
help anybody, all of a sudden he's
really worried about the spending.
But in this case, well,
you're spending more to keep
a dying industry afloat,
even though it has higher prices,
doesn't make sense in any way,
shape, or form.
Until you find out both your
contributions, political
contributions, and your personal
profits both come from coal.
So I don't know a person more
biased in America
than Joe Manchin on this.
And guys, have you seen in
mainstream media coverage about
the 5 million bucks he's made off
of his coal company?
>> Nope. >> You've never seen
that, right?
You've never seen that
in mainstream media.
Isn't that a weird thing that they
never bring up, something
that has got to be affected?
Guys, you know it in your
personal life, if you made 5
million bucks from something,
you think it might affect you?
Of course, of course you're human,
it would affect you, right?
And you ask mainstream media,
they're like,
no, politicians are so honorable.
That $5 million of
profits would never affect them.
>> It's insane.
>> That's not a factor.
They don't think it's
a relevant factor.
That is absolutely insane.
Last thing about that particular
portion of it,
Manchin says in a completely
different clip that I saw,
well let the markets do their work.
And he's partly referring to what
Anna just explained to you,
that the prices are going up for
coal, and they're going to go out
of business anyway.
>> Let me give you his
quote actually.
>> Okay. >> because I have that
quote, it's telling.
He says the transition is
already happening.
So I'm not going to sit back and
let anyone accelerate whatever
the markets changes are doing.
>> Now- >> What?
So hold on,
the market is great when
it's working to your advantage.
But you reject the market or
you try to slow down the direction
the markets going in if it doesn't
benefit you.
That's exactly what he's
saying there.
>> Well, he's saying let the market
do whatever it's doing and
let's not accelerate it.
But wait a minute, the markets
not just acting on its own,
coal has subsidies.
How is that part of the free
market?
Well, okay then if it's part of
the free market, why don't we give
it to the renewable energies?
Well, that's the thing you're
holding up. lll Wait a minute,
that doesn't make any sense at all.
>> Who cares about the market,
by the way,
the planet is being destroyed?
We're spending so
much money on a yearly basis to
respond to extreme weather events,
whether it's floods, wildfires,
insane hurricanes in areas where we
didn't typically have hurricanes.
I mean, you want to talk
about fiscal responsibility.
This is not fiscally responsible
in any way, shape, or form.
I don't care what direction
the market's going in.
Obviously we're dealing with a real
crisis here in regard
to the climate emergency, and
we have Joe Biden being treated as
if he's some sort of honest actor
who isn't motivated
by his own financial interests.
>> You said Joe Biden.
>> I'm sorry, Joe Manchin.
>> Although- >> I misspoke,
but also, come on.
>> But also. [LAUGH] >> Yeah, okay.
So guys, when Louisiana gets hit
with a giant hurricane, the people
of Louisiana, in a very red state,
have to pick up the bill.
And the federal government, and
hence all of us,
have to pick up to bill.
This isn't about how much
things cost.
This is about who pays them.
And so Chevron, Exxon Mobil, etc,
and, but Manchin's coal company,
they don't want to pay the bill.
They want to take the profits home
and they want to
stick the taxpayers with the bill.
That's what this is about.
And we show it to you with every
number, right?
We show it to you with statistics.
Here in a while, we're going to
give you another one here about the
percentage of people in coal, like
my God, you think 97% of the people
in West Virginia work in coal.
Because in mainstream media you
always hear,
coal West Virginia's coal, coal.
Joe Manchin's an honest,
honest person who cares about
the employees in West Virginia who
all work in coal.
None of it is true.
So we're going to prove it in
a second.
But you have to keep wondering why
the rest of the media never tells
you things that are obvious and
an enormous factor.
Why did they not tell you that?
Why do they keep
it hidden from you?
It's weird.
>> So let's take a look at this
graph because the graph breaks down
where the jobs are in
West Virginia.
Relatively few West Virginians
work in mining.
In fact,
coal mining employed around 13,000
people in West Virginia as of 2019,
about 3% of the state's workforce.
Again, 3% of the state's workforce
and that's down from 120,000 in
1950.
Many of those jobs have been lost
to automation and the rise of
cheaper sources of energy.
Like I said,
natural gas being one of them.
Coal fired power plants, by
the way, meanwhile, directly employ
little more than 2,000 people in
the state of West Virginia.
So all the talking points that
you're either likely to hear from
Joe Manchin or you've already
heard from Joe Manchin in
regard to how important coal is for
workers in the state, it's all BS.
Again, there's that massive
conflict of interest when it
comes to his own personal financial
incentives.
If he's invested in a company,
related to the coal industry, and
he's making half a million dollars
a year off of it,
that's what's motivating him.
He's not an honest actor.
And this isn't just a problem with
Joe Manchin, it's a problem with
almost every member of Congress.
Because remember,
every member of Congress can invest
in individual stocks.
They can make trades based
on undisclosed Intel in information
that we're not privy to as American
citizens.
This is stuff that happens day
in and day out.
Those conflicts of interests
are there.
They're right in front of our faces
and we're all having a discussion
about these negotiations as if
we're dealing with honest actors,
they're not honest actors.
The system is fundamentally broken.
The incentives are in
the wrong place.
>> And whenever anyone in
mainstream media does good
reporting, their own network then
immediately ignores it, right?
So this original story is from CNN,
about the woman who's struggling
paying her electric bills in
West Virginia.
They included the graph, etc.
But I'll give you more
numbers on it.
I mean, look, back in the old days,
a lot of jobs in
West Virginia were coal.
Back in 1950, 120,000 jobs when
they had a lot less people
in West Virginia were coal jobs.
And that was the main driving force
in West Virginia, but
that was 70 years ago, right?
So now in terms of people working
directly at the factories,
it's only 2000 people in overall in
the natural resources of mining
industry at large.
That's where we have 13,000 people.
That's it, 13,000 people.
That's 3% of the workers in
West Virginia, 3%.
So now, look, if CNN every time
they talk to Manchin, well, I think
they just asked Bernie Sanders if
he'd apologize to Manchin because
he pointed out facts that are true.
Look at that insane frame,
read your own articles, right?
If every time they talk to Manchin
they said, Senator Manchin,
only 3% of the jobs in
West Virginia are from coal,
97% is from other things.
And this would actually reduce
the amount of money that both
the federal government pays and
West Virginia pays.
And it seems like you care more
about the $5 million you just made
from coal than you do the 3% of
the workers of West Virginia.
My god that would change the entire
dynamic, just that one question,
if you just ask that once.
And then it would create a little
storm like, my god,
a reporter asked a real question
of someone in power.
And then everybody else would
ask the reporter to apologize to
Manchin for pointing out facts.
What is wrong with our media?
Why won't they say things that
are true?
It's infuriating, and
at the end of the day, the worst
part of it is it affects you.
They then do propaganda.
They move that bill from 6 trillion
to 3.5 trillion.
Now, 2 or maybe 1.5 trillion,
maybe not at all.
Why? Because they never effectively
called out Manchin for
what he's actually doing.