Joe Manchin and Joe Biden have markedly differing views re: play-like and normal-people energy forms

 The president waded into unforced-error territory with this outburst:

President Biden said Friday that all of the country’s coal plants should be closed because they’re too costly to operate and can’t be relied upon as a dependable energy source for future generations. “Wind and solar” will replace them, he said.

He unabashedly went all in on a central-planning approach:

“So it’s going to become a wind generation. And all they’re doing is it’s going to save them a hell of a lot of money and using the same transmission line that they transmitted the coal-fired electric on,” he said. “We’re going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar power, also providing tax credits to help families buy energy efficient appliances, whether it’s your refrigerator or your coffee maker, for solar panels on your home, weatherize your home, things that save an average, experts say, a minimum of $500 a year for the average family.”

Isn't the choice of what energy forms to use the purview of the free market - that is, the sum total of the choices made by consumers and producers of the various forms that are available?

Post-America is so far gone, though, that Biden's ignorance of economic basics may not register with a lot of people.

What does, though, is the political fallout from his utterance. Three key battleground states in the heartland have a lot at stake in discussions of the future of coal:

Pennsylvania has 24 plants, Ohio has 15 plants, and Michigan has 13 plants.

Joe Manchin, who's never been comfortable in his role as a not-very-leftist Democrat, took public issue with the president's proclamation:

Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) criticized President Joe Biden for recent comments he made about shutting down coal plants across the country, decrying the idea as being “divorced from reality.” 

“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 a statement. “Comments like these are the reason the American people are losing trust in President Biden and instead believes he does not understand the need to have an all in energy policy that would keep our nation totally energy independent and secure.”

It surely wasn't wise for Biden to let loose with this less than a week out from the elections. I guess we shall see Tuesday night which base - that of the overall Democrats, or that of voters in the mid-American coal-producing states - has more influence.