Sen. Joe Manchin is “intentionally sabotaging the president's agenda, what the American people want, what a majority of us in the Democratic caucus want,” Sen. Bernie Sanders tells @MarthaRaddatz.
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 17, 2022
"Nothing new about this." https://t.co/PCOX9tBRwR pic.twitter.com/kvuAscJ74B
Before some mention that BBB wasn’t enough for climate or the environment, no doubt – it wasn’t, not by a long shot. But it was what was theoretically possible to pass in a Democrat-held Congress and Presidency at this time. It would have been the groundwork for significantly greater expansion in renewables and EV growth that the corporations that build them NEED (not just want). Without its passing, we lose at least a decade that the world, not just our nation, can’t afford to lose. It’s impossible, imo, to overstate what a disaster this is. Politically, viewing the politics of the possible (not a fantasy version of it), this WAS the whole ballgame. I’m not sure how many realize this right now. I’m reasonably certain it will be viewed as such in time.
Paywalled, but good analysis:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/18/climate-change-manchin-math/
”“We estimate the Senate budget deal likely would have cut emissions by roughly 800 million to 1 billion metric tons in 2030,” said Princeton University professor Jesse Jenkins, an energy policy expert and modeler.’
Cliffnotes from article: that amount would have been just short of Biden’s 2030 climate pledge, which itself would have just been short of a global cap at 2 degrees C (with other countries doing their part), and the law not passing means there’s little chance that Biden’s pledge will be met.
But what the article doesn’t mention is how the U.S. is a global leader, and the country failing at its own goals makes the motivation for other countries meeting theirs much lower, and that corporations absolutely require a clear roadmap to the future to make multi-year plans. Without that guide, it cripples the chances of private industry working aggressively to meet targets, too.
Bernie is right. Coal Joe Manchin is corrupt turd who has been stringing along Democrats for 18 months now. I wish there were some way to punish Manchin without making him revolt to the Republican Party. That would be even worse because it would make Mitch McConnell the majority leader.
Would it, though? Manchin is a cuckoo in the nest. He gives Americans the false view that Democrats control the Senate, when they don’t, at least not when it really matters, and they’ll be more likely to vote against other actual Democrats when it comes to the mid-terms because of that false view:
https://www.statista.com/chart/23506/divided-vs-unified-government/
Months were wasted on this guy, intentionally, when the effort might have been better spent trying to get a couple of Republicans on board.
The only major legislation that Biden has passed the last two years, besides Covid relief, would have passed anyway, because there were a few Republicans on board (infrastructure), including McConnell. And now, Democrats are almost certain to lose at least one of the houses of Congress in a few months.
We’ve been played.
There are 50 other senators who are not participating in greenhouse gas legislation. Certainly a number of them know why it is important.
If a few of them chose to work with the Democratic leadership on a climate bill it could happen. Senators have agency. It mystifies me that an (R) after their name seems to magically absolve them of responsibility.
The problem isn’t that Joe Manchin is associated with coal money, the problem is that we needed more votes for the bill. This is a democracy after all, and representatives can vote based on their judgement of the constituents (or lobbyists as the case maybe).
Instead of vilifying Joe M. How about campaigning to get support from Republican politicians?
I think it’s BOTH coal money and a failure by the Democrats to pursue other options. Manchin promised he was going to agree to a deal with BBB, but in the negotiations, he never outright said exactly what he wanted. He just disagreed with certain parts, those parts were then modified, he’d disagree with another part after that, that was modified, and on and on. It was a giant stall job. I have a hard time believing that wasn’t intentional by Manchin (and by his coal buddies), that they always knew they had BBB checkmated, and all they had to do was run out the clock.
But, the Democrats also failed to see this sooner. They believed Manchin would make a deal, and all they had to do to pass BBB was make that deal. They could have pursued other options that a couple of Republicans might have agreed to, or they could have tried for a climate-only bill, and they let the clock run out.