Why Is Joe Manchin Obstructing A Key Provision In Biden's Climate Agenda?

The Clean Electricity Performance Program is under threat of being cut out of President Biden’s climate plan due to objections from Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.

The plan is designed to make significant progress towards achieving 100% clean electricity by 2035, cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and get to net zero emissions by 2050. The bill would make a $150 billion investment in combating climate change over the next decade, and would also carry a carrot-and-stick approach by paying companies to switch to renewable energy and fine those who don’t.

The CEPP would also create 8 million jobs and add $1 trillion to the economy by 2031, according to Analysis Group.

In 2018, 89% of CO2 emissions came from the fossil fuel industry, according to The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPPC warns that fossil fuel emissions must be cut in half by 2030 in order to avoid the planet warming past 1.5 degrees Celsius in order to avoid extreme weather, food scarcity, extinction, and more rising sea levels.

Coal is responsible for 0.3 degrees Celsius of the 1-Celsius degree-rise in the average global temperature, making it the single largest source in temperatures rising. Oil is responsible for a third of the world’s carbon emissions, whereas natural gas is responsible for 20% of the world’s carbon emissions. In 2018, the Silvan Foundation found that 8.7 million deaths occurred due to the burning of fossil fuels, accounting for 20% of the world’s total deaths that year.

However, the CEPP, considered to be a vital part of Biden's climate agenda, is likely to be removed from the reconciliation bill that Biden and Congressional Democrats have been negotiating.

Pundits have said that Manchin has objected to the legislation because it would retire the coal industry in his home state of West Virginia, which is part of the state’s economy and also continues to provide significant financial support for Manchin.

Manchin has accepted more campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry than any other senator -- more than double the second-largest recipient. For the 2022 election cycle, Manchin has accepted $179,450 from oil and gas companies, $60,850 from natural gas pipelines, $16,000 from coal mining, and $38,000 from utilities, the Guardian recently noted.

Manchin is also the top recipient in donations from both coal mining and gas pipeline operators and ranks sixth in contributions taken from utility companies. Before entering politics, Manchin set up a coal brokerage firm in 1988 called Enersystems. His shares in the company total between 1 and 5 million as 71% of his total personal investments and a third of his net worth are tied to the fossil fuel industry.

Manchin called the bill’s spending “reckless,” adding it “makes no sense” to pay utility companies to increase their share of renewable energy when they are already doing so. This statement was refuted by Robbie Orvis, senior director of energy design at Energy Innovation.

“[Manchin's] statement on this is demonstrably false. Utilities aren’t growing renewables that quickly, certainly not in West Virginia," Orvis told the Guardian.

“It’s not a secret he has ties to the coal industry. One would hope anyone elected to Congress would not hold significant financial holdings in industries they would consider regulating, but that’s the system we have, unfortunately," Orvis added.