Sen. Joe Manchin, a key centrist whose approval is required to pass the party’s massive social and climate spending package, has indicated in writing to party leaders what his demands are on energy policy.
Manchin proposed a deal to Senate Majority Chuck Schumer this summer to limit the total cost of Democrats’ reconciliation spending bill to $1.5 trillion and has been shopping it around to colleagues in recent days, according to a memo obtained by Politico and published this morning.
Manchin and Schumer both signed the document, but Schumer left a note in the margins saying he’s trying to “change Joe” on some of it.
On climate, none of Manchin’s demands are surprising, but they finally give some specificity to what he wants.
He asks that the Senate Energy Committee he chairs have “sole jurisdiction on any clean energy standard,” a reference to Democrats’ Clean Electricity Performance Program.
That was the expectation of how things would proceed anyway since the program would be implemented by the Energy Department that his committee oversees.
Manchin calls for “innovation not elimination” of energy sources while adding he expects the clean electricity program to be “fuel neutral.”
That last part seems to suggest Manchin, as expected, wants the program to be more lenient on natural gas and to reward utilities that switch from coal to gas.
On tax policy, Manchin wants credits for coal and gas power plants that use carbon capture and storage technology, and he requests that fossil fuel subsidies not be repealed if tax credits for wind and solar power are extended in the bill.
He also asks that any tax credits for vehicles not be limited to electric cars and include hydrogen-powered ones.
Seeing the contours of a deal: Manchin won’t get everything he wants, as some of these proposals are likely to upset liberals whose votes are also needed for Democrats to pass a bill through the split Senate.
But his requests show what a possible endgame compromise between progressives and centrists could look like.
It would retain the core pieces of Democrats’ climate agenda — the CEPP program and clean energy tax credits — while providing more leeway to fossil fuels.
Read rest at Washington Examiner
We need Fossil Fuels not some cheap replacement like Wind and Solar which cant be depended upon