West Virginia Democratic Sen. Manchin comes out against President Biden's energy commission nominee

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chair Joe Manchin has come out against President Joe Biden's renomination of an interstate energy regulator, The Hill reports. 

Manchin spokesperson Sam Runyon said in an email that the senator was "not comfortable holding a hearing" on Biden's nomination of Richard Glick for another term as a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Manchin has also been critical of FERC’s move to scrutinize proposed certificates for natural gas projects.

"The moment Manchin reacted so viscerally to the certificate policy statements, I suspected Rich was in real trouble," said Neil Chatterjee, a Republican who chaired FERC in 2017 and again from 2018 to 2020, according to Bloomberg. "That was just a big mistake, and, sadly, I think he's paying for that." Glick has served as chairman of FERC under Biden.

This is not the first time that Manchin has come out against the president. Biden made a speech about wanting to shut down coal plants in favor of solar and wind energy in California.

"President Biden's comments are not only outrageous and divorced from reality, they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs," Manchin said in response to Biden's remarks. 

Manchin called on the President to apologize for his remarks.