Sen. Joe Manchin went nuclear after complaining about the build back better act. The West Virginia Democrat said on Fox News that he was done working with his fellow senators and the president.
He told Baier that he couldn't vote to continue with the legislation.
Manchin followed that up with a lengthy statement explaining what he was worried about. Political reporters have tried to predict what this means for politics. I am not a big politics guy, so I don't know what is going on with chess Manchin and his ilk. I have to say that Manchin either misunderstands how these things work or is lying because I am a guy who knows a thing or two about the climate and energy systems.
Manchin said that his Democratic colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically remake our society in a way that leaves our country vulnerable to the threats we face.
Climate change is perhaps the biggest driver of vulnerability in the world right now, and one could argue if they were the type to read scientific assessments. According to a lot of scientific reports, failing to bend the emissions curve will result in millions of people suffering. The developing world will be hit the hardest. This year has seen catastrophic wildfires, Hurricane Ida, and a mass casualty event in the Pacific Northwest.
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The national debt is one of the things that Manchin claimed left us vulnerable. Tell that to the people who lost loved ones this summer and the generations who will have to live with his decision not to support a climate policy that was the barest minimum.
The beating heart of darkness in Manchin's statement isn't his misread of vulnerability. It is the following statement on the grid.
The bill will increase our dependence on foreign supply chains and endanger the reliability of our electric grid. The United States of America has begun the energy transition. Billions of dollars have been invested in clean energy technologies in the last two years as Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, so we can continue to lead the world in reducing emissions through innovation. The consequences for the American people will be catastrophic if we do so at a rate that is faster than technology.
The most mendacious part of Manchin's statement is this last part. Manchin says that inflation makes people vulnerable, but he doesn't mention that he doesn't want to use the child tax credit to help the poor. To pretend that the California and Texas Blackouts are examples of what happens when you go toward renewables too fast is a lie.
Deregulation meant that natural gas infrastructure wasn't ready for the cold snap and froze up. A peer-reviewed analysis confirmed this.
Joshua Busby, a distinguished scholar at the University of Texas, said that preparing to avoid the next freeze won't deal with the broader problem that our climate is changing and our infrastructure is designed for the 1960s, not the 2060s.
California's gas shortages have caused the state's power cuts. Why has demand been so high? It is too hot and people are running air conditioning to check their notes. It is too hot and the grid is prone to causing fires in those conditions.
What would have helped deal with these issues? According to an analysis by the American Council on Renewable Energy, the Build Back Better Act would have created hundreds of thousands of jobs, connected the grid more cohesively, and driven down utility bills.
Maybe Joe Manchin just didn't want to read about it between his weekly meetings with Exxon or the hundreds of thousands of dollars he's received from the oil and gas industry. That is a lot of counting. It took MrBeast 40 hours to get to 100,000.
I think that Manchin's actions and his mention of wanting to protect the vulnerable are telling. The most unreliable grid in the U.S. is in West Virginia, where people rely on outdated technology to keep the lights on.
The industries that funded Manchin's rise to power must be the vulnerable ones. Manchin said, "Despite my best efforts, I cannot explain the sweeping Build Back Better Act in West Virginia." It makes sense if the only people he is talking to are his dirty donors.
