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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKey to Biden's Climate Agenda Likely to Be Cut Because of Manchin Opposition
Link to tweet
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/climate/clean-energy-program-manchin.html?smid=tw-share
No paywall
https://archive.is/dgwA3
WASHINGTON The most powerful part of President Bidens climate agenda a program to rapidly replace the nations coal and gas-fired power plants with wind, solar and nuclear energy will likely be dropped from the massive budget bill pending in Congress, according to congressional staffers and lobbyists familiar with the matter.
Senator Joe Manchin III, the Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia whose vote is crucial to passage of the bill, has told the White House that he strongly opposes the clean electricity program, according to three of those people. As a result, White House staffers are now rewriting the legislation without that climate provision, and are trying to cobble together a mix of other policies that could also cut emissions.
A spokesman for the Biden administration declined to comment, and a spokeswoman for Mr. Manchin did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
The $150 billion clean electricity program was the muscle behind Mr. Bidens ambitious climate agenda. It would reward utilities that switched from burning fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, and penalize those that do not.
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budkin
(6,714 posts)ENOUGH MANCHIN BS
jimfields33
(15,948 posts)budkin
(6,714 posts)They have all the leverage.
jimfields33
(15,948 posts)I think they are leading in that part.
onecaliberal
(32,894 posts)Thats better and the truth.
DET
(1,324 posts)So Manchin doesnt want clean energy and Sinema doesnt want lower drug prices or increased taxes. Neither of them really want additional social programs. Whats left?
sprinkleeninow
(20,255 posts)Care for Creation~
We show our respect for the Creator by our stewardship of creation. Care for the earth is not just an Earth Day slogan, it is a requirement of our faith. We are called to protect people and the planet, living our faith in relationship with all of Gods creation. This environmental challenge has fundamental moral and ethical dimensions that cannot be ignored.
Attributed to: https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/catholic-social-teaching/care-for-creation
a kennedy
(29,706 posts)MFM008
(19,818 posts)It got to 112 here in Tacoma this summer.
People , plants and animals died, shellfish boiled alive.
I was sitting in the ER in Puyallup, WA, watching
people still coming in 2 days after that heat wave, heat sick
and this bastard gets to make the decision to protect his oil paycheck.
fuck you manchin TOTALLY.
Celerity
(43,497 posts)https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/30/joe-manchin-climate-coal-baron-stocks
Joe Manchin has never been this famous. People around the world now know that the West Virginia Democrat is the essential 50th vote in the US Senate that president Joe Biden needs to pass his agenda into law. That includes Bidens climate agenda. Which doesnt bode well for defusing the climate emergency, given Manchins longstanding opposition to ambitious climate action. It turns out that the Senator wielding this awesome power Americas climate decider-in-chief, one might call him has a massive climate conflict of interest. Joe Manchin, investigative journalism has revealed, is a modern-day coal baron. Financial records detailed by reporter Alex Kotch for the Center for Media and Democracy and published in the Guardian show that Manchin makes roughly half a million dollars a year in dividends from millions of dollars of coal company stock he owns. The stock is held in Enersystems, Inc, a company Manchin started in 1988 and later gave to his son, Joseph, to run.
Coal has been the primary driver of global warming since coal began fuelling the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain 250 years ago. Today, the science is clear: coal must be phased out, starting immediately and around the world, to keep the 1.5C target within reach. Scientists estimate that 90% of todays coal reserves must be left in the ground. No new coal-fired power plants should be built. Existing plants should quickly shift to solar and wind, augmented by reducing electricity demand with better energy efficiency in buildings and machinery (which also saves money and produces more jobs). This is not a vision that gladdens a coal barons heart. The idea of eliminating fossil fuels is very, very disturbing, Manchin said in July when specifics of Bidens climate agenda surfaced. Behind the scenes, Manchin reportedly has objected to Bidens plan to penalize electric utilities that dont quit coal as fast as science dictates. The White House is not selling it this way, but the huge budget bill now under feverish negotiations on Capitol Hill is as much as anything a climate bill. The clean electricity performance program and other measures in this budget reconciliation bill are the core of Bidens plan to slash US climate pollution in half by 2030, a reduction science says is necessary to limit global temperature rise to 1.5C and avoid cataclysmic climate change.
Apparently keen to delay a vote on the bill but not on the bipartisan infrastructure bill containing billions in subsidies for climate harming programs like making hydrogen from methane Manchin asked on CNN, What is the urgency? of passing the larger bill. Like ExxonMobil, the senator appears to have jettisoned outright climate denial in favour of its more presentable, but no less lethal, cousin: climate delay. Soon Biden will join other world leaders at the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, described as a now or never moment for efforts to preserve a livable planet. Biden and his international climate envoy, John Kerry, have been leaning on other nations, especially China, to step up their commitments. But Biden can only press that case successfully in Glasgow if Congress passes the budget bill, and with its climate provisions intact. That will depend in no small part on Manchin, who as the Democrats 50th vote in the Senate now holds what amounts to veto power over US climate policy.
Its not illegal for Senator Manchin to own millions of dollars of coal stock indeed, it illustrates the old saw that the real scandal in Washington is whats legal but it certainly raises questions about his impartiality on climate policy. Should any lawmaker with such a sizable financial conflict of interest wield decisive influence over what the US government does about a life-and-death issue like the climate emergency? Shouldnt there be public discussion about whether that lawmaker should recuse himself from such deliberations? In the realm of law, a judge who had anything like this level of financial conflict in a case would have to recuse and let a different judge handle the proceedings. The legal professions code of ethics dictates this approach not only because a judges financial interest would tempt them to rule in their own favour. Its also because the two parties litigating the case and the broader public could not have faith that justice had been done by a judge with such a conflict. Why shouldnt a similar standard apply to the American publics faith in government policy, especially when whats at stake is, you know, the future of life on earth? Manchin could still vote for the budget bill; he just couldnt touch its climate provisions.
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al bupp
(2,191 posts)I'd say that quote about sums up what's wrong w/ our democracy.
Blaukraut
(5,693 posts)At least then the Democrats can claim that the job is halfway finished, but that we need to increase our majorities to be able to pass the climate provisions. Passing nothing, on the other hand, will kill any chance we might have of keeping the house and adding Senate seats.
Fiendish Thingy
(15,656 posts)There should still be funding to build solar and wind farms in the bill.
$150 billion isnt that much out of $3.5 trillion.
There are other important environmental elements in BBB besides incentives/penalties for energy companies.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/blog/2021/09/16/the-presidents-agenda-to-build-back-better-will-reduce-emissions-and-keep-energy-costs-low/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/