Tycoon threatens US green plan
US PRESIDENT Joe Biden has pledged to enact the toughest environmental policies in US history, but his plans look dead on arrival thanks to one senator who has pocketed a fortune from fossil fuels.
The $150billion Clean Electricity Performance Program (Cepp) – a cornerstone of Biden’s sweeping domestic agenda – would reward utilities that switch to renewable energy and penalise those that do not. Experts say the programme would cut most greenhouse gas pollution tied to electricity generation, which accounts for about a quarter of US emissions.
But Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia who heads the Senate’s energy committee, argues that throwing cash at companies already moving away from fossil fuels is wasteful.
“Senator Manchin has clearly expressed his concerns about using taxpayer dollars to pay private companies to do things they’re already doing,” said the centrist senator’s communications director, Sam Runyon.
“He continues to support efforts to combat climate change while protecting American energy independence and ensuring our energy reliability.”
Under laws originally intended to encourage cross-party co-operation, legislation in the US usually needs the support of 60 of the 100 senators to get out of the starting blocks.
The ruling party can overcome opposition stonewalling to pass certain measures, however, with just a simple majority, through an arcane budgeting process known as “reconciliation”.
But even under this system, they rely on a vice-presidential tiebreaker in the 50-50 Senate if there’s no opposition backing, meaning Manchin has an effective veto and can tank any bill.
The 74-year-old has already emerged as a crucial up-or-down vote on the historic, multitrillion-dollar “Build Back Better” social welfare bill that contains the climate provisions.
The impasse creates a headache for the president as he prepares to head to Glasgow for a major climate change gathering at the end of the month.
Keen to rebuild US climate credibility undermined by inertia and denialism under Donald Trump, Biden is desperate to have sweeping new global warming curbs agreed in Washington before he shows up to Scotland. Cepp, along with clean energy tax credits, would have made up the majority of Biden’s goal of slashing emissions to 50% of 2005 levels by 2030.
Gridlock on Capitol Hill while Democrats control Congress and the White House also threatens to undermine the party’s case going into next
year’s midterm elections that it knows how to govern.
Manchin has a vested and longstanding interest as a senator from West Virginia, the second-largest coal-producing state after Wyoming, according to government data, generating nine-tenths of its electricity from the fuel. His last public financial disclosure reveals that Manchin received almost half a million dollars in dividends on stock from Enersystems, the coal brokerage firm he founded that is now run by his son.
But rates for coal-fired power have more than doubled over the past decade. While he may have the support of miners and other workers in the
traditional energy sector, Manchin is not backed by all West Virginians.
Jim Kotcon, chairperson of environmental lobby group the Sierra Club’s local conservation committee, said West Virginians were seeing increasingly severe floods thanks to climate change – and rocketing utility bills. “Stop the pain: prioritise investments in the people of West Virginia ... pass the Build Back Better bill and move West Virginians forward,” he said in a statement.
Manchin’s refusal to support the clean electricity programme has also sparked a backlash from fellow Democrats in Washington, with some threatening to sink the broader bill in its entirety. “Climate cannot and will not be cut. No climate, no deal,” Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey said.
West Wing aides are said to be scrambling to look for other legislative ways to achieve climate benefits and keep Democratic support on track. These could include a carbon tax – in which polluting industries pay a fee for every ton of carbon dioxide they emit – or additional clean-energy tax incentives and credits.
Minnesota’s Senator Tina Smith, a long-time champion of the clean energy programme, described the social spending bill as “our last chance” to take effective action on carbon emissions. “Clean energy tax credits are great, but they can’t do the heavy lifting all by themselves,” she said.
But for environmentalist Bill Mckibben, Manchin’s position essentially marks “the end of the line for the foreseeable future” for legislation shutting down burning of fossil fuels. “Whatever emerges, the administration will certainly be able to claim that it’s the ‘largest climate legislation Congress has ever adopted’.” he said. “But it will also be a failure.”
Frans Berkhout, a professor of environment at King’s College London, said that while European officials might be more understanding of the domestic political constraints that Biden faces, Russia and China would probably use any legislative failings to their advantage.
Rhodium Group, an economic research body, suggests that the US can achieve emissions reductions without the new power plant proposal – but it will require sweeping executive action by state governments, too. Congress would still have to enact the other clean energy provisions in the budget bill, including the extension of tax breaks for renewable generation, tax credits for electric vehicles and grants for clean energy.