Wednesday on “Fox & Friends,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) ripped former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s new carbon initiative that would close all coal plants in the country.

Manchin asked why anybody would want to “punish the hard working people” of West Virginia who he said have “answered the call for this great country so many times.”

“I told Mayor Bloomberg, ‘Why don’t you use that $500 million to respect the dignity of the work these miners have done? Help us get the pension plan, which I can’t get Mitch McConnell to move off of, give them the pension plan they’ve earned,'” Manchin stated.

He continued, “Asia, India and China are using more coal-fired plants than ever. By 2040, they will still be 50 percent dependent on coal and we have to find that technology. The markets will change. People migrate to the cheapest form of energy, but right now you need dependable energy. Fossil gives you that — and we use it cleaner and we can even do much more.”

Manchin then took aim at the Green New Deal, which he said is “not a practical approach at all.”

He instead offered his support for former United States Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz’s “Green Real Deal.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent