The West Virginia senator, who has made millions from his ownership of a coal trading company, had seemingly dashed Joe Biden’s hopes of passing meaningful climate legislation — only to reveal on Wednesday his support for a 369 package billions of dollars to support renewable energy and electric vehicles roll out, roll out, roll out. The centrist Democrat’s move shocked many of Manchin’s colleagues, who were desperate after more than 18 months of seemingly fruitless negotiations with the lawmaker, a crucial vote in an evenly divided Senate. “Holy shit,” tweeted Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota. “Amazing, but in a good way.” If the bill passes both houses of Congress and is signed by Biden, it will be the largest and arguably the first climate bill ever enacted by the US. The world’s largest historic carbon polluter has repeatedly failed to act on the climate crisis due to missed opportunities, staunch Republican opposition and the machinations of the fossil fuel lobby. The climate spending, part of a broader bill called the Inflation Reduction Act, “has the potential to be a historic turning point,” said Al Gore, a former vice president. “It is the largest investment in climate solutions and environmental justice in US history. Decades of tireless work by climate advocates across the country have led to this moment.” The bulk of the bill includes massive tax credits to free up clean energy projects like wind and solar power, as well as a rebate of up to $7,500 for Americans who want to buy new electric vehicles. There’s $9 billion to retrofit homes to make them more energy efficient, tax credits for heat pumps and rooftop solar, and a $27 billion “clean energy technology accelerator” to help develop new renewable energy technology. Another $60 billion will go toward environmental justice projects, and there’s a new program to reduce leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas drilling. “This will be, by far, the largest climate action in human history,” said Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii. “The planet is on fire. Emission reductions are the main thing. This is huge progress. Let’s do it”. The bill’s authors predict it would cut U.S. emissions by 40 percent by 2030, based on 2005 levels, a claim cautiously supported by independent experts. Scientists said global emissions must be halved this decade and then zero by 2050 if the world is to avoid catastrophic heatwaves, droughts, floods and other climate impacts. Biden has set US emissions targets in this direction. The bill would “bring clean energy jobs to America and lower energy bills for American families,” tweeted Leah Stokes, a climate policy expert at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “It would get us 80 percent of the way to President Biden’s climate goal. This is a game changer.” But Manchin said the legislation “does not arbitrarily shut out our abundant fossil fuels” and has extracted guarantees for new offshore and onshore drilling, including a provision that millions more acres of public land be opened up to fossil fuel companies before new solar or wind. energy projects can do the same. The West Virginia senator is a staunch supporter of a major proposed natural gas pipeline in his home state and has called for more domestic oil production, citing inflation fears. Demanding more drilling leases amounts to a “climate suicide pact,” according to Brett Hartle, director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The new financing required in this bill will fan the flames of climate disasters burning our country,” Hartle said, lamenting “a slap in the face to communities struggling to protect themselves from dirty fossil fuels.” If the bill does pass, it will almost certainly do so without a single Republican vote, with the party still almost uniformly opposed to any major action to address the climate crisis or hurt the fossil fuel industry. Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, said he couldn’t believe Manchin was “agreeing to a massive tax increase in the name of climate change when our economy is in recession. I hope that common sense will eventually win the day.”
