be considered in any climate legislation.
Some of Manchin’s stances have changed
in parallel with the coal industry’s declin-
ing fortunes and climate change’s rising
toll. The same man who once sued the EPA
over restrictions on mountaintop-removal
mining eventually asked federal officials
to study the environmental harm from the
practice, saying, “I think the method has
exceeded its useful life.”
In 2018, when Manchin was made rank-
ing Democrat on the Senate committee that
oversees energy resources and development,
nuclear waste policy, and public lands,
many environmentalists were outraged at
the elevation of an outspoken advocate
for fossil fuels. He “simply can’t be trusted
to make the bold, progressive decisions
we need” on the Energy Committee, said
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who ran unsuc-
cessfully last year for the Democratic presi-
dential nomination on a climate platform.
But working with Murkowski, Manchin
pushed the biggest conservation legisla-
tion in a decade through a sharply divided
Congress, helped fully finance the Land
and Water Conservation Fund for the first
time in a half-century, and made sure the
latest coronavirus stimulus bill included bil-
lions for solar, wind, and battery storage.
Manchin’s environmental score as kept by
the League of Conservation Voters jumped
from a low of 20 percent in 2014 to a high
of 86 percent in 2019.
“Folks are always trying to figure out his
evolution, did he change because of this or
that,” said Collin O’Mara, chief executive
of the National Wildlife Federation and a
friend of Manchin’s. But the explanation is
not so much a change of heart as a change
of circumstances, O’Mara said. In light of
the declining demand for coal—a conse-
quence of shifting markets more than gov-
ernment regulation—Manchin sees clean-
energy investments as a chance to create
new jobs. “Everything he’s done through-
out his career [is] to make sure there’s some
level of economic opportunity back home,”
O’Mara said. “If you understand that
about him, everything else makes sense.”W
HEN THE DEMOCRATS clinched
control of the Senate with a
pair of Georgia victories on
Jan. 6, Manchin became not just the top
lawmaker on energy but one of the most
powerful people in Washington. Even laws
approved through budget reconciliation—a
process that requires a simple majority for
passage—will rely on his support.
What a “golden opportunity to get com-
promise back,” Manchin recalled thinking
that morning. After four years of Trump
“playing to his base and that’s about it,” heThe last word^37
Ne
ws
com
said in a recent interview, “I think it’s great
Democrats get to set the agenda and see if
they can make this place work.”
Mere hours later, he found himself in the
bowels of the Capitol, sheltering from
rioters incited by Trump and some of
Manchin’s own Republican colleagues.
While the mob raged, Manchin tried to
reason with GOP senators who planned
to object to the electoral college votes. At
least two he lobbied, Sens. Steve Daines
of Montana and James Lankford of
Oklahoma, stood down. But in the end,
eight returned to the chamber they’d fled
and still voted to dispute the results. That
incident undeniably pushed the partieseconomy” and that no “heavy-lifting areas
in this country” are left behind. To that end,
any major climate proposal with a chance
of getting Manchin’s vote will in some
way include “carbon-capture” technology
to absorb carbon dioxide before it exits
smokestacks. That’s not only a way to allow
coal- and gas-fired power plants to keep
operating in a zero-emissions world, but
also a boon for West Virginia, which hosts
an Energy Department lab in Morgantown
that is a center for carbon-capture research.
Rosser gives Manchin credit for acknowl-
edging that the energy economy is changing
while other West Virginia politicians still
promise to “bring coal back.”
“One of the reasons I’m excited about him
being in this key position,” she said, “is
that West Virginia needs someone who can
lead on federal policy in a way that doesn’t
leave us out.”
At the same time, fossil-fuel groups
still see him as a potential ally. “I think
Sen. Manchin is somebody that our
industry can work with,” said Frank
Macchiarola, senior vice president for
policy at the American Petroleum Institute.
“Hailing from a state that’s rich in coal and
natural gas resources, he’s someone who
recognized those are an important part of
the mix as well.”
The biggest piece of Biden’s climate plan
that requires congressional approval is a set
of requirements for power plants to elimi-
nate their contributions to climate change by- Ever mindful of Capitol Hill dynam-
ics, the former senator from Delaware made
sure coal- and gas-fired power plants could
continue to operate, as long as they captured
the carbon they emitted. Even so, Manchin
is leery about setting a standard for power
companies that depends on technology that
isn’t yet cheap or effective enough.
Manchin is also wary of the Paris accord,
which Biden moved to rejoin on his
first day in office. The senator echoes
Republican critiques that the international
agreement, designed to keep the global
temperature increase well below 2 degrees
Celsius, demands too little of develop-
ing nations. Still, climate change can’t be
ignored, even in coal country. Constituents
in West Virginia are noticing the more fre-
quent floods linked to increased precipita-
tion, Manchin noted.
“There’s nobody I know in my state that
wants to drink dirty water, to breathe dirty
air, I can assure you,” he said. “I’m as
environmental as anyone else. I’m pretty
rational, practical about it, too.”
This article appeared originally in The
Washington Post. Used with permission.Coal’s decline has changed Manchin’s outlook.further apart, Manchin acknowledges.
Now, to have any hope of passing some-
thing as contentious as comprehensive cli-
mate legislation, some environmental activ-
ists argue that Democrats must be willing to
bypass Republican objections by eliminating
the filibuster, a tactic that blocks consider-
ation of legislation unless 60 senators agree
to end debate and move to a vote.
“The scientists have told us we have a
handful of years, if not no time at all, to
completely transform our society,” said
Garrett Blad, a spokesman for the Sunrise
Movement, a climate-crisis advocacy group.
He called it “naïve” to think that such a
plan would receive support from at least
10 Republicans, the minimum needed to
join with 50 Democrats to pass legislation.
But if any Democrat could find common
ground with the GOP, it’s Manchin, said
West Virginia Rivers Coalition executive
director Angie Rosser. She pointed to the
success of the bipartisan energy package
included in last month’s stimulus bill, which
one green group heralded as “perhaps the
most significant climate legislation Congress
has ever passed.”
Manchin is saying little about how he
will manage the Energy Committee as
chairman—besides making sure that “there’s
a balance between the environment and