At the same time, Obama didn’t indicate what direction his administration would take with regard to cap-and-trade legislation and its reconsideration of nearly two dozen surface mine applications in West Virginia, Manchin said in a teleconference with reporters after the meeting.

The governors met with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and other top administration officials during a closed-door meeting at the White House. Manchin said it was a frank discussion in which everyone was allowed to freely speak his or her mind.

“He said from the get go, ‘Whatever is on your mind; there is no script here,’” Manchin said.

The discussion didn’t lead to any pledges from Obama in terms of policy except for his announcement that he would create a task force to study carbon capture and storage, or CCS. Manchin said the president didn’t say what shape that task force might take or when it might get started.

However, in a memorandum released later in the day, Obama directed 14 federal agencies to each assign an official to serve on an interagency task force co-chaired by designees from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The task force must develop within 180 days a plan to overcome the barriers of implementing CCS on a widespread scale within 10 years, with the goal of bringing five to 10 commercial demonstration projects online by 2016.

Obama also reaffirmed his support for legislation that would regulate CO2 emissions.

“Ultimately, comprehensive energy and climate legislation that puts a cap on carbon pollution will provide the largest incentive for CCS because it will create stable, long-term, market-based incentives to channel private investment in low-carbon technologies.” Obama said in the statement.

CCS is the process of capturing carbon dioxide emissions then burying them deep underground so they don’t contribute to global warming. The technology has been criticized as costly, inefficient and impractical on a large scale, but research continues into finding whether it can one day become practical.

Manchin also said the president didn’t indicate whether he would push for cap-and-trade legislation in the U.S. Senate, where it is currently stalled, or press the EPA to step back from its pledge to regulate CO2 emissions.

The governor acknowledged the governors and the president didn’t see eye to eye on coal, in particular on mountaintop mining.

“I think there is no bones about it … they are not fans of mountaintop removal,” he said.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson attended the meeting, and Manchin used the occasion to present to her a four-page brochure about the role of coal in the state’s and nation’s economy. But he didn’t get any word what the agency would do with 79 surface mine applications it has pulled for reconsideration, including 23 from West Virginia.

The other governors at the meeting were Jim Douglas of Vermont; Steve Beshear of Kentucky; Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming; Brian Schweitzer of Montana; John Baldacci of Maine; Phil Bredesen of Tennessee Christine Gregoire of Washington; Bob Riley of Alabama; Mike Rounds of South Dakota; and Ted Strickland of Ohio.

Click here to read the W.Va. Energy Flyer

Click here to read Gov. Joe Manchin's letter to President Barack Obama