Manchin Made It Clear That Energy/Climate Policy Was Key To His Deciding To Shiv The Planet

[hatrack]

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But Manchin, who owns a coal company, continues to reject the notion that climate change demands urgent action. He called the climate provisions in Biden’s bill “catastrophic.” Manchin’s position left many climate activists and scientists despondent and defeated. Some maintained there were still ways for the United States to confront climate change, but they acknowledged that Manchin’s opposition was a gut punch to the movement.

“There’s no putting lipstick on a pig,” said Alden Meyer, a senior associate at climate policy think tank E3G. “If it’s the end of the Build Back Better legislation, it’s a real blow to U.S. climate ambition and the White House is going to have to come up with strategies to work around that.” Manchin singled out clean energy as a major reason he would vote against the "Build Back Better Act." That leaves Democrats with no clear path for moving substantial climate policy through Congress, even if they manage to advance other portions of the Biden agenda.

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One of the top recipients of oil and gas money in Congress, Manchin has successfully worked for months to weaken and eliminate the climate provisions in the bill. In his statement yesterday, he repeated industry talking points around the bill’s climate policy — including the claim it would drive up utility costs.

Manchin’s constituents pay some of the highest utility bills in the country. The state gets about 90 percent of its power from coal, which experts say cannot compete economically over the long term with natural gas and renewable fuel sources. The state Public Service Commission, including members appointed by Manchin, has long supported propping up money-losing coal plants and passing those costs along to customers. One of those plants, which has lost more than $100 million for ratepayers in the last few years alone, is key to Manchin’s personal finances (Climatewire, Nov. 17).

The plant is a primary customer for Manchin’s coal brokerage. Manchin repeatedly has pushed policies that would benefit that plant in particular. Manchin has made more than $5 million from his coal brokerage since he was first elected to the Senate in 2010. Gopal of Energy Innovation said West Virginia stood to see massive benefits from the climate legislation in the form of direct investments, savings for individuals and thousands of jobs. The state was poised to realize $18 billion in benefits for its power sector alone. But Manchin singled out the legislation’s climate provisions as especially objectionable. “If enacted, the bill will also risk the reliability of our electric grid and increase our dependence on foreign supply chains,” Manchin said in a statement following his Fox News appearance.

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https://www.eenews.net/articles/dems-scramble-seethe-after-manchin-kills-climate-bill/

[qazplm135]

1. Climate change

Child tax credit
His pissy reaction to a neutral statement with his name in it
Inflation
Debt
"Geopolitics" (direct quote from him)

Whole lot of different things are being listed as primary reasons for his opposition.