Bernie Sanders says he'll vote against keeping the government open if Manchin's 'disastrous side-dea

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

side-deal’ on energy is included

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said on Thursday that he'd oppose a short-term government funding bill if Democratic leaders attached legislation meant to ease construction of crude oil pipelines and other energy infrastructure.

"I will not vote for any bill that makes it easier for Big Oil to destroy the planet and that includes approving the Mountain Valley Pipeline," the Vermont independent wrote on Twitter. "The Continuing Resolution must not be held hostage by Big Oil."

The continuing resolution is a bill designed to keep the government funded for several weeks while Democrats and Republicans craft a year-long spending bill. The measure includes permitting reforms meant to speed up the approval of energy infrastructure projects including the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Sen. Joe Manchin's home state of West Virginia.

Sanders took to the Senate floor and pummeled the legislation, which Democratic leaders and President Joe Biden agreed to pass in an effort to secure Manchin's vote for the Inflation Reduction Act last month. Winning Manchin's support was crucial for the party to advance the slimmed-down version of Biden's economic agenda.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/bernie-sanders-says-he-ll-vote-against-keeping-the-government-open-if-manchin-s-disastrous-side-deal-on-energy-is-included/ar-AA11BNCR

Sure that's the hill you want to die on Bernie? I don't like Manchin's deal either but I don't know if you're going to get a better one.

[Faux pas]

1. Kickety Kickin'

[RainCaster]

2. Go Bernie!

I'm with you all the way!

[Autumn]

3. I'm good with him opposing that vote. I would oppose it too.

[Celerity]

12. See post 9 for all the incredibly damaging things in Manchin's side deal, it goes far beyond just

that rotten pipeline, and works to dramatically undermine the IRA climate parts that are now already signed into law (Manchin and Big Fossil Fuel are trying to retroactively damage Biden's IRA to a large degree because they cannot undo the just passed law).

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217137350#post9

[Autumn]

25. It's a horrible bill. Bernie will catch shit for opposing this POS bill from the same people who

give Manchin a million excuses and kudos for every Dem bill he sabotages.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

4. YES! Standing up for the environment is a hill I would die on!

The time is now!

[Hortensis]

5. Really? There's only about 20 miles left to completion of the Mountain Valley.

If that. Is this one of a series?

[Celerity]

11. Manchin's side deal's far more than just the pipeline, it has many disastrous elements that undercut

the IRA and anti global climate change action in general.

The IRA of 2022 is already signed into law, Manchin cannot stop that, but his side deal undercuts it it ex post facto.

see:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217137350#post9

[womanofthehills]

21. Wrong - not true

600 water ways need to be crossed - less than 60% finished

[Hortensis]

22. It's due to be completed next year. Natural gas is hardly an ideal for

Last edited Fri Sep 9, 2022, 03:55 AM - Edit history (1)

how we want to supply energy in future, but it's almost done, an imperfect asset we can put to work as we turn to meeting many, many, MANY other, vital energy issues. The balance of costs and benefits strongly favors using it to help maintain life-sustaining energy for real people while we take dirty (dirtier in this case) energy away. None of this is about profits for those building it.

Absolutely everything depends on adequate energy for existence, and demand is increasing due to climate emergencies and population growth -- in spite of use becoming more efficient. Society must maintain adequate energy supplies WHILE we transition to sustainable sources and away from fossil fuels.

Where supplies are not adequate, there will be no transition. Society won't allow -- except where people are too poor and few to save themselves and their communities, of course.

We're already seeing warning signs around the nation of system failures for various reasons. There is little mention of the relatively few human deaths so far, or of already dying communities, but they're actually giant, blazing danger signals.

We have to be smarter than we have been about a lot of things to bring ourselves through this. Our safety margins for foolish mistakes are gone. And we really need to listen to and empower good leaders; those prone to well meaning but fruitless thinking are as problematic as those prone to cupidity and factional knuckledragging now that we must meet many emergencies for real.

So finish the almost-finished pipeline that's already torn through 300 miles of mostly wilderness forest and farmland because it's almost finished and can be used. Insist it be done right. Monitor properly, which we have technology to do far better than ever before. Dismantle it, along with other pipelines, as we do away with natural gas, or probably sooner when demand for natural gas drops below economic viability, as it will. Replant the forests. Farming will always have continued where it was.

[Demsrule86]

6. Sanders is willing to shut down the government for 20 miles...really.

[Celerity]

9. Manchin's side deal is far more than just '20 miles', it is a disastrous undercutting of the IRA and

anti global climate change in general.

Here’s What’s Wrong With Manchin’s Side Deal to the Inflation Reduction Act

In an impassioned call to allies in the national climate movement, a community organizer explains: “We in Appalachia are done with being a sacrifice zone.”

https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/manchin-appalachia-inflation-reduction-act/

ELLISTON, VA.—Appalachia won’t be thrown under the bus in a side deal to climate legislation. That’s why we’re going to the capital next week, for the “Appalachian Resistance Comes to DC” rally, on September 8. Our message: We’re done with being a sacrifice zone. If you care about climate, you’ve got to care about us too. It’s the right thing to do. And it’s also the only way we can get better climate policies going forward. The wheelers and dealers who negotiated the Inflation Reduction Act need to work with those of us on the ground who lead this fight, rather than against us.

The side deal proposed by Senator Joe Manchin includes the undermining of laws that protect us from the fossil fuel industry. Manchin also wants Congress to fast-track his pet project, the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP). Half-completed, the pipeline has been stopped in its tracks by effective mobilization on the ground and in the courts. I have played a small part in this. I am a single mother and grandmother. I clean houses during the day and a local doctor’s office at night. I spend every spare moment resisting the pipeline because it would carry fracked gas close to me and my neighbors in Montgomery County, Va., endangering our community even though the gas is not meant for us.

snip

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/08/01/manchin-pipeline-drilling-permit/

The side deal would set new two-year limits, or maximum timelines, for environmental reviews for “major” projects, the summary says. It would also aim to streamline the government processes for deciding approvals for energy projects by centralizing decision-making with one lead agency, the summary adds. The bill would also attempt to clear the way for the approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would transport Appalachian shale gas about 300 miles from West Virginia to Virginia. This pipeline is a key priority of Manchin’s.

Other provisions would limit legal challenges to energy projects and give the Energy Department more authority to approve electric transmission lines that are deemed to be “in the national interest,” according to the document. One provision in the agreement could make it harder for government agencies to deny new approvals based on certain environmental impacts that are not directly caused by the project itself, said Sean Marotta, a partner at the Hogan Lovells law firm who represents pipeline companies.

https://aboutblaw.com/4ht

Link to tweet

This draft of Manchin's side deal on permitting is stamped: "Draft - API" (American Petroleum Institute).

(In case you were wondering who is calling the shots here)

https://aboutblaw.com/4iu



much more at that pdf link

[NickB79]

13. Fast-tracking big energy projects is also vital for rolling out a national renewable grid

Without it, we won't be connecting the wind resources of the Midwest with the coasts, or the sun of the Southwest with the frozen North, in any timeframe fast enough to slow catastrophic climate change.

The same decade-long environmental reviews that hold up gas and oil development are ALSO holding up new transmission lines, nuclear reactors and offshore wind farms.

[Celerity]

14. So parse out renewables/green-related permitting, and sod the fossil fuel climate killers.

[NickB79]

28. It's not quite that simple

For example, North Dakota wants to construct a high-voltage line to northern Minnesota. Doing so would allow vast amounts of wind energy to hit the grid. It seems like a no-brainer, but......

It would also allow their dying coal-fired power sector a chance at a second life, because power lines don't parse out electrons made from renewables or fossil fuels.

[Celerity]

29. I am sure they can sort it

[womanofthehills]

19. Thank god for environmental reviews -

You want them to fast track a project that has 600 water crossings left to complete.

The dangerous Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project has already destroyed and degraded the habitat of endangered species along its route, in addition to threatening our clean air, water, and our communities. MVP has consistently put profits before people and wildlife, resulting in harmful and irreparable impacts on the region’s forests and streams.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline project is in jeopardy and continues to face strong community opposition. Communities have worked tirelessly to protect their health, homes and their environment and have fought for the recent wins. Court decisions invalidating recent key permits are a huge victory for our environment as the preservation of endangered species and national forests were under threat from corporate polluters.




https://appvoices.org/2022/03/17/mvp-completion/

[womanofthehills]

16. Wrong - company's own reports - 55.8% + 429 risky water crossings

It seemed like a good time to provide an update with actual facts. The current status of MVP?

MVP construction is only 55.8% complete. Not “nearly 95%” as claimed by pipeline supporters.

This statistic comes from the pipeline company’s own weekly reports submitted to FERC, with the most recent one being from May 2, 2022 (Appendix A, page 5).


What’s left to be constructed?

429 risky crossings of streams, creeks, rivers and wetlands.

These water crossings require massive ground disturbance, either drilling a tunnel beneath a waterway or digging a trench (and possibly blasting) right through one. The risks come not only from the water crossing construction, but also from the damage to the surrounding landscape. No other large pipeline has ever been approved across this many miles of steep slopes and high landslide risk areas. MVP is designed to pass through more than 200 miles of “high landslide susceptibility,” and steeper slopes typically mean more threats to clean rivers and streams as well as increased risks of pipeline explosions.





https://www.nrdc.org/experts/amy-mall/update-reasons-remain-stop-mountain-valley-pipeline

[BlueIdaho]

7. ManChin has had a pretty decent run

Controlling the Federal Government, it’s time for some other fiddler to call the tune.

[Beastly Boy]

8. Bernie is pulling a Manchin on Manchin. Holding up legislation because he can.

The problem is, if he succeeds, it will be at Biden's expense, with all the consequences this implies.

Ordinarily, I would say Manchin is fair game. But not now, when this maneuver can derail Biden's signature legislation.

[Celerity]

10. You have it backwards, the IRA's already signed law, Manchin's side deal is what massively undercuts

it ex post facto.

see:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217137350#post9

[Beastly Boy]

17. Yeah, I messed up

For some reason, I got an impression that Bernie's impending vote will have an effect on IRA. It will not. In this case, it is a good opportunity for Bernie to make a statement, and it is unlikely to shut down the government.

[former9thward]

18. A no vote on the Continuing Resolution would shut down the government.

The so-called side deal may be made part of the CR if Schumer agrees.

[Beastly Boy]

23. Unlikely. Just one GOP vote in favor will get it passed, Bernie or not.

Kamala will break the tie in favor of CR.

[womanofthehills]

20. No, Bernie is holding up legislation because the project is an environmental disaster

Since when do you guys not care about the environment. I though Dems and the Sierra Club would be on the same side.

Mountain Valley Pipeline: Enough Is Enough


By the time the ACP was canceled, it was years behind schedule, billions over budget, and lacking key federal permits. So too is the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Eight years after it was first proposed, the 300+ mile fracked gas pipeline is barely half completed to final restoration and has ballooned in cost. It’s looking increasingly likely it will never be completed.

Like the ACP, the MVP has struggled to get the permits it needs to construct the pipeline, has tried to cut through protected lands and streams, and has impacted communities.

In the interim, it’s become increasingly clear the demand for a big gas pipeline just isn’t there. In late June, the MVP decided not to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on two federal permits that the Sierra Club and partners successfully challenged in federal court. MVP is now instead reapplying for federal permits a third time in less than five years.

https://www.sierraclub.org/articles/2022/07/mountain-valley-pipeline-enough-enough

[Beastly Boy]

24. Attaching the pipeline deal to the continuing budget resolution is not a done deal.

All I am debating is the pros and cons of Bernie's strategy with regard to his potential vote. It is by no means a statement of my position regarding a far bigger issue which is the environmental effects of fracking.

[Sympthsical]

26. The IRA was touted as the most consequential environmental legislation in decades

What would be the point, if a Manchin deal could then cut the legs out from under the environmental progress?

Will be interesting to see who freaks out on Sanders on this.

When Bernie hate is more important than climate change . . . well, priorities.

[AntivaxHunters]

27. Hell yes!

Go Bernie!

[Grins]

30. Better: Kill the debt limit legislation

It’s old, outdated, impractical, not used by any of the states to manage their finances, wouldn’t be considered by a corporation, and has become a political tool for REPUBLICANS - when they are not in power - to make points with the rabble that is “the base.”

Kill it!

[Eugene]

31. More than 70 House Democrats join push against Manchin's permitting reform

More than 70 House Democrats join push against Manchin’s permitting reform (The Hill)

More than 70 House Democrats are signing on to a letter pressing Democratic leaders to not include a side deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on reforming the permit process for energy projects in a bill funding the government.

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/3636073-more-than-70-house-democrats-join-push-against-manchins-permitting-reform/

[elocs]

32. Really, how could Democrats ever be accused of stealing any election

when getting them to work together is like herding cats? Or as Will Rodgers is quoted as saying, "I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat." I also.

[NickB79]

33. This is ridiculous. If we want the IRA to work, we need permitting reform

Right now, our slow permitting system is stalling the rollout of renewable energy projects and the transmission lines they need to create a national renewable grid. We need tens of thousands of miles of high voltage lines crisscrossing the US. Last year, we built only 386 miles. At that rate, most of the renewable energy envisioned in the IRA won't be online until past 2050, when we'll be well and truly fucked just from the fossil fuels we've already emitted. We need to treat this like we did the National Highway System, installing thousands of miles per year, every year. And we need to start right now.

Beyond that, renewables are the cheapest form of energy available today. Once they start hitting the grid in force, they will overwhelm fossil fuels just based on economics. Will gas and oil producers try to build more pipelines? Probably. But they'll be driven to insolvency by cheaper electricity for home use and cheaper to drive EV's powered by wind and solar.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/26/why-the-us-has-a-massive-power-line-problem.html

[Nanjeanne]

34. 70+ Dems in House send letter to leadership against special deal

Progressive Revolt Against Manchin’s Energy Side Deal Could Snarl Government Funding
More than 70 House Democrats warned leadership against a special deal with West Virginia's Democratic senator to win his Inflation Reduction Act support.

Seventy-two House Democrats, including several committee chairs, warned House leadership Friday not to agree to ease restrictions on new energy projects in the push to keep the federal government funded past Sept. 30.
The warning came in a letter organized by Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-N.M.), chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, and follows similar opposition by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Senate. With Democrats holding paper-thin margins in each chamber, almost any defections on a temporary funding bill vote could cause big problems.

“In the face of the existential threats like climate change and MAGA extremism, House and Senate leadership has a greater responsibility than ever to avoid risking a government shutdown by jamming divisive policy riders into a must-pass continuing resolution,” Grijalva said in a statement about the letter.
“Permitting reform hurts already-overburdened communities, puts polluters on an even faster track, and divides the caucus. Now is just not the time,” he said.

[link:https://www.huffpost.com/entry/manchin-progressive-revolt-inflation-reduction-act-energy-projects_n_631ba86ee4b0eac9f4d777e3|

Link to letter. Interesting to read the signers. https://naturalresources.house.gov/imo/media/doc/2022-09-09%20Group%20NEPA%20Letter%20to%20Pelosi%20and%20Hoyer.pdf