Senator Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, stated firmly to the White House that he is against one of the most powerful parts of President Biden’s climate agenda.
The Clean Electricity Program has been at the heart of President Biden’s climate agenda since he took office.
The program aimed to reduce the role of coal and natural gas in the production of electricity by paying companies as they reduce their reliance and penalizing those that do not.
The White House has pushed the program hard, but passage was always going to come down to a single senator: Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
When Manchin met two weeks ago in a video conference call with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and six utilities, he opened the gathering by asking the same question about paying utilities for installing clean electricity.
Without Manchin’s support, the program won’t pass the narrowly divided Senate. The impasse leaves Biden’s climate agenda in limbo and raises questions about how the administration plans to reach the 50 percent reduction in emissions the president hopes to achieve by 2030.
The meeting between the power companies, Manchin and Granholm underscores the difficult path facing the White House. The six utilities in the meeting were American Electric Power Co., DTE Energy, Duke Energy Corp., Exelon Corp., Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. and Southern Co.
Only Exelon, which boasts a large nuclear fleet, publicly backed the CEPP. The others have largely refrained from commenting publicly. Duke Energy has said it supports the concept but wants to iron out the details.
AEP, which operates three coal-fired plants in West Virginia, has been the most outspoken. In September, the company circulated a letter raising concerns with the CEPP, while leaving the door open to negotiations.
The Ohio-based company has committed to greening its fleet of power plants but also plans on running several of its large coal plants into the 2040s. The West Virginia Public Service Commission last week approved a plan for West Virginia ratepayers to cover the costs of upgrades.
Manchin, for his part, noted the Energy Department had ample tools to speed the transition of the country’s electric mix, and he offered to help the agency as the congressional appropriator with oversight of the agency’s budget.
But the senator showed no sign of supporting the president’s signature climate policy. Manchin is one of the largest recipients of campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry in Congress.
“Senator Manchin has clearly expressed his concerns about using taxpayer dollars to pay private companies to do things they’re already doing,” said Manchin spokesperson Sam Runyon. “He continues to support efforts to combat climate change while protecting American energy independence and ensuring our energy reliability.”
For weeks, the conservative Democratic senator from West Virginia said publicly that he didn’t support the signature climate provision in the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion reconciliation package.
Why pay utilities to install clean electricity, he argued, if they were doing it already?
With Mr. Manchin’s support now extremely unlikely, where does that leave American climate policy?
Faced with the likely demise of the program, the White House and outraged lawmakers are scrambling to find alternatives.
