Democrat Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia (yes, I've written about him before) is apparently prepared to go against his own party yet again in order to sink the Build Back Better Framework, the $150 billion clean electricity program that may be the Democrats' last best chance to do something substantial to improve the USA's greenhouse gas emissions.
The ambitious bill proposed and supported by Joe Biden and the Democrats includes crucial climate change provisions, and would provide some much-needed international leadership on the issue. In a Senate balanced on a pin, Manchin's single Democratic vote against the bill would be enough to sink it inexorably. And, even though his coal and gas state itself is in favour of diversifying away from the moribund coal industry and towards renewables, Manchin is doggedly indicating his unflinching opposition to such a path, supposedly because of its potential effect on inflation and the deficit. No Republican has enough morals or boldness to go against the party line, and so the bill looks doomed to failure.
The line about inflation and the deficit, though, is clearly just smoke and mirrors. Maserati-driving Manchin's opposition to any movement towards renewables and away from coal, gas and oil is all about money and his own personal wealth and power base. Manchin makes literally millions of dollars from his investments in the coal industry, and oil-and-gas-financed PACs (particularly ones based in Texas, not even his home state) are ploughing yet more millions in to supporting his position as Senator. And we all know that kind of support does not come without strings attached.
Who knows how the Senate mid-term elections will go later this year, so this may be the Democrats' best chance to push through something worthwhile on the climate change file. And it is all at risk from to one man's stubbornness and greed.
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