CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) — West Virginia’s Mountain Valley Pipeline remains in limbo over a battle in the U.S. Senate. And once again, Senator Joe Manchin is right in the middle of what’s becoming a political tug-of-war.

Raising more concerns about rising U.S. energy prices, Senator Manchin called a news conference in the Nation’s Capitol.

With natural gas prices up 200% this year, Manchin is pushing for support of a continuing resolution in Congress to grant permits for completing the Mountain Valley Pipeline from West Virginia to a seaport in Virginia. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) and other environmentalists are trying to block that deal. But Senator Manchin calls the need critical.

“We’ve got a good piece of legislation that is extremely balanced. And I think it will prove itself in time. The bottom line is how much suffering and how much pain do you want to inflict on the American people for the time? I can assure you, basically, the longer the time goes, the more the price goes up. That’s what we facing in America today, in energy,” said Manchin.

So far, no Republican Senators have signed on to support the continuing resolution bill, including West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito. Senator Capito told WOWK 13 News she and her colleagues could not commit to the bill since they had not receive the text of it. Senator Manchin says the GOP will have the draft bill tomorrow, Wednesday, Sept. 21.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline permitting is part of a larger continuing resolution to keep the U.S. government funded and prevent a government shutdown on Oct. 1.