BRADLEY, WV (LOOTPRESS) – After a late-night vote in the Senate on Thursday, an agreement to raise the debt ceiling was officially passed with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.
Senator Joe Manchin has served as a deciding voice on major pieces of legislation because of the slim Democratic majority in the Senate and his tendency to lean more moderate on certain issues.
It was no different with the debt ceiling agreement as Manchin served yet again as an important vote. Manchin committed to voting for the agreement as long as his request for the resumption of the Mountain Valley Pipeline construction was in the language of the agreement.
Manchin got his wish as the agreement passed through the Senate on a 63-36 bipartisan vote. Following the late-night vote, Manchin made his way back to the Mountain State to celebrate the news.
Manchin made a stop in Bradley to the Mountain Valley Pipeline Yard to meet with those in charge of finishing the 303-mile-long natural gas pipeline as well as check out the yard himself.
Manchin says he’s glad to see construction finally resume as the pipe in the Bradley Yard has set untouched since 2017. “We’re very much excited, the country needs it, the southeast needs it tremendously,” Manchin said. “It’s a tremendous help for West Virginia to be able to produce more energy that the country needs.”
Manchin says he understands that this pipeline has been a political football. “Whether it be one group against the other group and the other group against this group, but this all about being for energy security for America,” Manchin explained. “This is the only project in the United States of America that can put this much product in the market, we scored a touchdown last night.”
Senator Shelley Moore-Capito also applauded the inclusion of the MVP in the debt ceiling agreement.
“After working with Speaker McCarthy and reiterating what completing the Mountain Valley Pipeline would mean for American jobs and domestic energy production, I am thrilled it is included in the debt ceiling package that avoids default,” Capito said. “Despite delay after delay, we continued to fight to get this critical natural gas pipeline up and running, and its inclusion in this deal is a significant victory for the future of West Virginia.”
Approximately 20 miles of the West Virginia to North Carolina pipeline are left to be completed in the southern part of the state. The project will create more than 2,500 jobs, generate $50 million in tax revenue and more than $175 million in royalties for West Virginia landowners.
Construction is expected to resume within the next two weeks to a month.
