Manchin deals a stunning blow to Democrats' efforts to fight climate change
Manchin won't support reconciliation bill with new climate spending
It looks like climate provisions are getting stripped from Democrats' economic package.
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) told Democratic leaders yesterday that he wouldn't support a budget reconciliation package that includes new spending on climate change or new tax increases targeting wealthy Americans or corporations, The Washington Post's Tony Romm and Jeff Stein scooped last night.
The stunning shift marks a major setback for party leaders, who had hoped to advance a central element of their agenda before the midterm elections. Climate activists also argue it's a major setback for the planet, whose catastrophic warming would have been slowed by the significant new spending on climate and clean energy.
The development — confirmed by two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the talks — threatens to blow up the delicate negotiations over the reconciliation package seven months after Manchin scuttled the original, roughly $2 trillion Build Back Better Act.
The setback comes despite weeks of seemingly promising negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Manchin in pursuit of a broader deal that would have made a significant investment in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, incentivizing clean energy and putting more electric vehicles on the road.
“Political headlines are of no value to the millions of Americans struggling to afford groceries and gas as inflation soars to 9.1 percent,” Manchin spokeswoman Sam Runyon said in a statement. "Senator Manchin believes it’s time for leaders to put political agendas aside, reevaluate and adjust to the economic realities the country faces to avoid taking steps that add fuel to the inflation fire.”
A spokesman for Schumer declined to comment.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) told The Climate 202 that he was angry but not surprised by Manchin's decision to walk away from the climate spending, given his income from his family's coal business. (The income complies with Senate ethics rules.)
“It is a gut punch but not a surprise. Anyone who understands who Mr. Manchin is, where he gets his wealth, what he actually cares about, can't really be surprised,” Huffman said in an interview.
“It's nevertheless a huge blow to climate activists, to the majority of Americans who are demanding bold action on the most important existential issue of our time,” he added. "And I hope they understand that this is one man. This is not the Democratic Party. This is one very corrupted, compromised man who was probably never going to be part of the solution, despite this tease that we've all been exposed to, on and off, for the better part of a year."
Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), whose panel has jurisdiction over the clean energy tax credits in the package, lamented that “nearly all the issues in the climate and energy space had been resolved” after months of deliberations.
“This is our last chance to prevent the most catastrophic — and costly — effects of climate change," Wyden said in a statement. "We can’t come back in another decade and forestall hundreds of billions — if not trillions — in economic damage and undo the inevitable human toll.”
Without the reconciliation bill, America is on track to miss President Biden's target of cutting the nation's emissions 50 to 52 percent by 2030, according to an analysis released Thursday by the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm.
“That package was a really important component of meeting the goal,” Ben King, an associate director at Rhodium and co-author of the analysis, told The Climate 202.
Jamal Raad, who leads the climate advocacy group Evergreen Action, told The Climate 202 that the White House no longer has an excuse to consider approving new fossil fuel projects to help secure Manchin's elusive vote.
He called on Biden to block fossil fuel infrastructure that would lock in emissions for decades to come, including ConocoPhillips's Willow project on Alaska's North Slope and new offshore oil and gas leasing in federal waters.
“The White House needs to end the Willow project and all new leasing in the Gulf of Mexico and in Alaska,” Raad said. “They need to send a message that if [Manchin] isn't going to play ball to invest in clean energy, what the White House is doing on fossil fuels is done.”
Huffman said the development underscores the need to bolster Democrats' razor-thin majority in the Senate, where the party needs all 50 votes in the caucus, plus Vice President Harris’s tiebreaking vote, to use the special process known as budget reconciliation to overcome Republicans’ expected filibuster.
“Let's stop empowering this puppet of the coal industry to be his own branch of government," he said, "and let's get on with it."
Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who co-sponsored a major cap-and-trade bill that died in the Senate in 2010:
By: Maxine Joelow and Vanessa Montalbano
Source: The Washington Post
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