Joe Manchin

Surprise, surprise: Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin threw cold water on yet another aspect of his party's approach to climate policy.

Manchin, who would appear not to care at all about supporting Democratic climate policies, recently convened a bipartisan meeting of senators to discuss energy security and climate change and gauge where there may be room for consensus. He suggested that lawmakers instead direct more funding toward developing hydrogen resources to decarbonize the transportation sector ( a complicated and potentially fraught proposition). In February, Manchin joined three Republicans to launch a working group to develop a hydrogen hub in West Virginia, which would allow for the continued use of fossil fuels and would be a major win for natural gas and coal producers in Manchin's state. Surprise, surprise: Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin threw cold water on yet another aspect of his party’s approach to climate policy.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. questioned a key Biden Administration energy policy Thursday when he called tax credits for electric vehicles “ludicrous” amid ...

“They’ve cornered the market,” he said. “When we can't produce enough product for the people that want it and we're still going to pay them to take it, it's absolutely ludicrous in my mind.” “I’m thinking we’re getting ourselves tangled in a situation that we’re not going to be able to supply” the products needed for EVs, he said. China is responsible for 80% of the world’s electric battery and material processing and 75% of the world’s lithium-ion battery cell production, Manchin said. The transition to electric vehicles is a key energy goal for President Biden, who last year said he wants half of all new cars to be electric by 2030 and pushed for the infrastructure's law prominent provision to give $7.5 billion for states and cities to set up EV charging stations. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. questioned a key Biden Administration energy policy Thursday when he called tax credits for electric vehicles “ludicrous” amid strong consumer demand and a lack of American production of EV batteries.

Several Democratic senators say they are growing dispirited about the prospect of Manchin ever giving the greenlight to moving a budget reconciliation package, ...

You have to have the climate and you have to have the reliability of the fossil,” he told reporters Thursday, shooting down talk of trying to quickly shift the nation away from relying on oil, natural gas and coal. I want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to improve the climate,” he added. We invite you to join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter. I want to make sure we have reliability and be energy independent. “Anything we can do along the lines we did on the infrastructure bill would be great if we could,” he said. It’s an unsettling development for Democratic senators who hoped a climate and renewable energy package would be a core piece of the budget reconciliation package. “We need a two-path system. I’m fiscally responsible and socially compassionate,” he added. Now the climate and energy piece of the reconciliation package is competing with what Manchin is trying to negotiate with a group of Republicans. Asked if the bipartisan energy package he’s putting together is intended to replace the strategy of moving an energy and climate package in a budget reconciliation bill, Manchin told The Hill: “We’re trying to get input from everybody. Manchin says an energy package needs to support the production of fossil fuels as well as renewable energies, a tack that puts him in conflict with Whitehouse and other Democrats who view the reconciliation package as their best opportunity in perhaps the next 10 years to reduce global warming emissions in a big way. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who attended the first bipartisan meeting convened by Manchin on energy and climate proposals, told The Hill there’s “a lot of overlap” with what’s been discussed for inclusion in the reconciliation package.

Senator Joe Manchin's apparent opposition to a push by Democrats and the White House to expand a popular consumer incentive for electric vehicles threatens ...

Congressional Democrats and Biden seem content to blame Joe Manchin for the expiration of a program that dramatically cut child poverty.

Even with this kind of data, many Democrats would be loath to agree to a work requirement that could exclude the poorest, and advocacy groups would no doubt fight against one. It is likely given that recalcitrance of some people in the caucus — or maybe one person in the caucus — that the path for a permanent solution is going to have to be bipartisan, and I’ve been having good discussions about that over many months.” Not being able to reach a deal on the child tax credit before the midterms could make an already grim-looking situation for Democrats worse. “Just go back and see what the Wall Street Journal editorial board was posting at the time, all these arguments about why we shouldn’t have specific tax breaks for families.” Wells recalled one WSJ op-ed in particular that mocked the Rubio-Lee proposal derisively, suggesting Republicans instead pursue a canine tax credit to woo millennials. “Nothing would make me happier than doing the right thing and passing a reconciliation bill that lifts millions of children out of poverty, ” he told me. In a March email reviewed by Vox, their steering committee wrote “while members are free to advocate for outside priorities and even alternative child allowance proposals, we determined that CAP’s decision to put their full weight behind a legislative plan that forecloses the possibility of extending the CTC violated this coalition’s working agreement.” Within the advocacy coalitions, some have started to quietly grumble that maybe it’s time to rethink their strategy for the first time in over a year. “The purpose of the memo was the sharpen Democrats’ focus and essentially say don’t fumble this opportunity that exists,” he said. Another survey released by the left-leaning Data for Progress and Groundwork Collaborative found that likely voters had lost trust in Democrats to support families with children when they heard the expanded CTC had expired. Perhaps most significantly, Manchin made clear that he wanted to reinstate a work requirement for the CTC, something hotly opposed by many Democrats who recognized this would once again exclude some of the poorest households from claiming the credit’s full value. Though the CTC was only funded for one year, Democrats had been optimistic that if they could just seed the generous program, then they would amass the kind of political support that makes a popular subsidy hard to repeal. “We were shocked,” said Otis Rolley, a senior vice president at the Rockefeller Foundation, who has been leading a coalition of groups to support the policy.

West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin blasted a potential expansion of the electric vehicle (EV) tax credit on Thursday, while also calling for the development ...

Manchin added that the money put toward expanding the EV tax credit program should be funneled to other sources, like research into hydrogen powertrains. Manchin also believes EVs are not a way to free dependence on oil from other countries. It would have increased the $7,500 credit to as much as $12,500, granted the vehicle and its battery were built in U.S facilities that were unionized to see the full benefit. Manchin added that production volumes of EVs are far away from fulfilling current demand levels, so it would be ridiculous to offer additional funding to the programs. It would have also put an end to EV credit caps, which Tesla and General Motors both have as they are disqualified from offering the credit after selling 200,000 EV units. It is evident that EVs are becoming more popular, and with automakers in nearly all situations relating to EVs still working to produce and sell 1 million electric powertrains a year, demand is outweighing current production metrics.