Joe Manchin, America's climate decider-in-chief, is a coal baron

[Celerity]

The pivotal Democratic senator owns millions of dollars in coal stocks. Shouldn’t he recuse himself from US climate talks?

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 Biden’s climate agenda. Which doesn’t bode well for defusing the climate emergency, given Manchin’s longstanding opposition to ambitious climate action. It turns out that the Senator wielding this awesome power – America’s 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 today’s 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 baron’s heart. The idea of eliminating fossil fuels is “very, very disturbing”, Manchin said in July when specifics of Biden’s climate agenda surfaced. Behind the scenes, Manchin reportedly has objected to Biden’s plan to penalize electric utilities that don’t 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 Biden’s 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.

It’s 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 what’s 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? Shouldn’t 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 profession’s code of ethics dictates this approach not only because a judge’s financial interest would tempt them to rule in their own favour. It’s 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 shouldn’t a similar standard apply to the American public’s faith in government policy, especially when what’s at stake is, you know, the future of life on earth? Manchin could still vote for the budget bill; he just couldn’t touch its climate provisions.

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[jimfields33]

1. Maybe he should. Where do the democratic senators find his replacement vote?

[Celerity]

2. you apparently didn't read the article

Manchin could still vote for the budget bill; he just couldn’t touch its climate provisions.

[jimfields33]

3. Oh. That's not going to happen.

[Celerity]

4. it should though, that is the point, he is so compromised, he has a massive conflict of interest

[jimfields33]

5. I agree. But that would put a lot more politicians in jeopardy of

having to stay out of issues that they have various financial things in.

[Celerity]

6. they should, it's outrageous that politicians can self-deal to maintain or increase their own wealth

Also, the inflow of lobbyist and corporate money is one of the worst, most corrosive forces in the American political system. Citizens United was a huge coffin nail pounded into American democracy.

Senators to Introduce Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United

https://www.krwg.org/post/senators-introduce-constitutional-amendment-overturn-citizens-united

U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) will join Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to reintroduce the Democracy for All Amendment next week. This constitutional amendment would overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC decision, as well as other alarming decisions around campaign finance that led to floods of corporate and dark money in politics and diminished the voice of the American people in elections.

These decisions have wrongfully equated money with free speech, and unfairly determined that big, wealthy corporations have the same First Amendment rights as people. This announcement coincides with Constitution Day, which commemorates the adoption of the U.S. Constitution and celebrates U.S. citizenry. The Democracy for All Amendment would put power back in the hands of the public and get big money out of politics by empowering Congress and states to set reasonable campaign finance rules and limiting corporate spending. The amendment would enshrine in the Constitution the right of the American people to regulate the raising and spending of funds in public elections, and curb the concentration of political influence held by the wealthiest Americans.

“As the influence of dark money in our elections continues to grow, the voices of ordinary Americans will continue to be drowned out by the wealthiest individuals and corporations,” said Senator Luján. “In addition, state legislatures across the country have passed multiple voter suppression laws that deliberately and disproportionately limit access to the ballot for voters of color. That’s precisely why this amendment is needed to get big money out of our politics and place the powers of our democracy back in the hands of our citizens. This Constitution Day, I’m proud to stand with Senator Shaheen and Leader Schumer and introduce this amendment to overturn Citizens’ United, restore our democracy, and empower voters once again.” “Ensuring we are truly a government ‘of the people, by the people, for the people’ is a core democratic value that all Americans, regardless of political affiliation, hold dear. That’s why this constitutional amendment is so necessary, and on Constitution Day, I’m glad to announce I’ll be leading the charge to return the power to the people and get special interest and dark money out of our elections,” said Senator Shaheen. “The outsized influence of big money in American politics is a dangerous threat to the functioning of our democracy.

The Citizens United ruling opened the floodgates for dark money and special and foreign interests to influence our politics with little accountability. We must safeguard our elections from these threats and ensure our politics reflect the will of the public – I hope both Democrats and Republicans will join me in this effort.” U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ed Markey (D-MA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Bob Casey (D-PA), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Michael Bennett (D-CO), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jack Reed (D-RI) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) are also cosponsors of the Democracy for All Amendment.