By Karen Graham
Published October 26, 2021
Dried up Little Washoe Lake in Nevada is seen in July 2021 after prolonged drought. — © AFP
It seems that not a day passes lately where West Virginia’s Democratic Senator, Joe Manchin is making headlines, as he continues to hold President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Agenda — a $3.5 trillion plan to help working families and create green energy, hostage.
And Manchin has been against the Clean Electricity Payment Program, or CEPP, a $150 billion plan that would incentivize utilities to switch to clean energy sources like solar, wind, and nuclear and penalize those continuing to burn fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Manchin said he would “forgo the prosperity of his constituents and their descendants by refusing to vote for a climate measure billed as the nation’s last-ditch effort to secure a livable future,” according to the Sierra Club.
Now, it seems that the Senator is not even sure which political party he wants to belong to, Manchin, asked during an Economic Club of Washington, D.C., event about switching parties, said his life “would be much easier” if he flipped, according to The Hill.
“[But] is that the purpose of being involved in public service?” Manchin said. “You think that having a ‘D’ or an ‘I’ or an ‘R’ is going to change who I am?”
“I don’t think the R’s would be any more happier with me than the D’s right now … I don’t know where in the hell I belong,” Manchin added, sparking laughter from the audience.
Right now, Manchin is the odd-man-out in the Senate and everyone lawmaker, including the president, is very careful in how they are handling him. But as I said earlier, he is holding an important piece of legislation hostage, and for a long while, even I wondered why.
But I should have figured out where the hell Manchin was coming from. Environmentalists have criticized Manchin for his family ties to the coal industry. He served as president of Energysystems in the late 1990s before becoming active in politics, handing the reins of the business to his son.
Now if you think he put those interests aside – you’re wrong. On his financial disclosures in 2009 and 2010, his reported earnings from the company were $1,363,916 and $417,255, respectively. And just last year, he earned dividends of close to half a million dollars.
Manchin has always been in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline being built, saying, “We are literally sitting on top of tremendous potential with the Marcellus shale. We need to work together to chart a path forward in a safe and responsible way that lets us produce energy right here in America.”
In 2011, Manchin was the only Democratic senator to support the Energy Tax Prevention Act, which sought to prohibit the EPA from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2018, Manchin criticized Obama’s environmental regulations as a “war on coal” and demanded what he called a proper balance between the needs of the environment and the coal business. The Los Angeles Times wrote that while professing environmental concerns, he has consistently stood up for coal, saying “no one is going to stop using fossil fuels for a long time.”
The years leading up to the present time have shown that Manchin has consistently voted against or voiced resistance to any legislation or spending on clean energy solutions and mitigation of climate change.
And while it may seem that the good senator is sometimes talking out of both sides of his mouth, things in the world we live in today have changed drastically. Whereas Manchin might have believed 10 years ago that fossil fuels had to be in first place for U.S. energy needs, it is just not true anymore.
In February 2019, Mitch McConnell called for a vote on the Green New Deal. Manchin expressed opposition to the plan
“The Green New Deal is a dream, it’s not a deal. It’s a dream. And that’s fine. People should have dreams in the perfect world what they’d like to see. I’ve got to work in realities and I’ve got to work in the practical, what I have in front of me. I’ve got to make sure that our country has affordable, dependable, reliable energy 24/7, but you can’t just be a denier and say, ‘Well, I’m not going to use coal. I’m not going to use natural gas. I’m not going to use oil.'”
Here is something that I find particularly interesting – Polling shows a vast majority of Manchin’s West Virginia constituents support the full Biden package, clean energy and all, including 56 percent of Republican likely voters.
WRITTEN BY
Karen Graham is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for environmental news. Karen's view of what is happening in our world is colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in man's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.
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