Tag Archives: Senator Manchin

There Is No Honor Among Thieves

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On Tuesday I posted an article about the few good things in the Inflation Reduction Act. They were things that would prevent the fossil fuel industry in America from disappearing entirely under the extreme environmentalist agenda of the Biden administration.

On Tuesday, Townhall posted an article raising the possibility that the items that made the deal with Senator Manchin possible might not happen.

The article reports:

The deal that took place between Manchin and Schumer, as well as Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, assured Manchin that there would be a separate method approved that would involve permits for energy infrastructure, including gas pipelines. There would also be new lease sales for oil drilling on federal lands. 

It doesn’t seem like everyone is on board, though. As POLITICO reported on Tuesday for Congress Minutes, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) says he’s “reserving judgement for now.” As the headline aptly read, though, “Tom Carper sure doesn’t sound sold yet on the permitting deal Chuck Schumer struck with Joe Manchin.” 

While Carper’s highlighted remarks begin sounding hopeful enough, there’s still room for concern. “I’m confident we’ll find some areas where we agree. There will probably be some areas where we don’t agree. I’m not sure the vehicle. I feel confident we’ll do that. … At the end of the day, I just don’t want us to make the changes in permitting that will undermine our ability to fight climate change,” he said. 

A newsletter from Inside Climate News last month explained a whole host of complaints that environmentalist groups had about the agreement. 

The remarks came after Carper presided over a pro forma session that same day. 

The article notes:

Making the agreement even more high stakes is that Sen. Manchin is threatening to shut down the government if he doesn’t get his permitting deal in a continuing resolution (CR). While Republicans have taken heat for threats to shut down the government, now it’s a Democrat who is doing so.

On Sunday, The West Virginia MetroNews reported:

As part of an agreement between Manchin and Democratic leaders, Congress will consider changes to the permitting process once lawmakers return to Capitol Hill next month. Related legislation will include steps to speed up approval of energy projects as well as the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 303-mile system capable of transporting natural gas from West Virginia to southern Virginia once complete. The project has been marred by legal challenges.

Manchin said the language will be in a continuing resolution to fund the federal government for when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.

“This is something the Republican Party has wanted for the last five to seven years I’ve been with them,” he said.

“It either keeps the country open, or we shut down the government. That’ll happen Sept. 30, so let’s see how that politics plays out.”

Stay tuned.

 

Good News?

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I was very unhappy when Senator Manchin signed on to the Inflation Recovery Act. I was not necessarily surprised, as he has caved in the past when his vote was critical. However, it seems as if there might be a silver lining to this atrocious bill. Please follow the link to the bill to read the Associated Press’ comments on the legislation.

On Sunday, Hot Air reported the following:

Some of the Democrats who have been spiking the ball in the end zone after the passage of the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” probably didn’t read all of the finer details in the bill. They’ve been celebrating its passage along with Joe Biden as the “biggest climate legislation” to ever be passed. They have also been grudgingly thanking West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin for getting the bill over the finish line. But it turns out that Manchin snuck in a few items that haven’t drawn many headlines yet and the climate warriors aren’t going to be very happy about them. While there were billions of dollars for wind and solar energy incentives in the bill, there were also provisions to bolster the oil and gas industry and keep it viable for quite some time to come. And previously stalled permits for drilling both on federal lands and offshore are about to be back on track. (Associated Press)

The article notes:

The most amusing part of this story is perhaps not the underlying news about new oil and gas leases, but the language the AP reporter chose to employ. After the CBO report came out, along with multiple analyses from economists, they’ve basically given up on calling the recent legislation the “Inflation Reduction Act.” In the title of the article, they simply call it the “climate bill.” They then go on to call it the “climate measure.” You have to dig down to the third paragraph before they bother mentioning the actual name of the bill as it was crafted.

The article concludes:

The oil and gas industry clearly saw this coming and they had been preparing. Despite the CEO of Chevron predicting earlier this year that no new oil refineries might ever be built in the United States again thanks to Joe Biden, we learned in recent weeks that Meridian Energy Group has received approval and is moving forward on construction of a new refinery in North Dakota. Two other previously shuttered refineries are undergoing refurbishment and will reopen later this year.

Don’t get me wrong, here. There are still plenty of awful things in this “climate bill.” But these additions lashing renewables and fossil fuels together have at least brought us a few significant steps closer to the “all of the above” energy policy that America needs to survive into the next century.

There may actually be a silver lining to this monstrosity.

 

It Begins On October 12th

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The Gateway Pundit posted an article today reporting the planned schedule for the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett.

The article reports:

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham on Sunday laid out the timeline of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation process.

“More than half of the Supreme Court justices who have had hearings were done within 16 days or less, so we’ll start on Oct. 12,” the South Carolina Republican said on Fox News.

“We’ll have a day of introduction. We’ll have two days of questioning, Tuesday and Wednesday, and on [Oct. 15] we’ll begin the markup.”

“We’ll hold it over for a week, and we’ll report her nomination out of the committee on Oct. 22,” Graham continued. “Then it will be up to Sen. [Mitch] McConnell as to what to do with the nomination once it comes out of committee.”

There are a few things that should be noted about the upcoming confirmation hearings. Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on May 8, 2017, and confirmed on October 31, 2017, by a 55 to 43 vote. Three Democrats voted with the Republicans–Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, and Indiana Senator Joe Donnelly. That was less than three years ago. She has been vetted. Senator Donnelly is no longer in the Senate, but Senator Manchin and Senator Kaine are still Senators. Senator Manchin has stated that he will vote against the nomination. Senator Kaine is also expected to vote against the nomination although I could not find a specific statement from him to that effect. It seems to me that the Senators would welcome the opportunity to fill the Supreme Court seat with someone who has recently been vetted and has done an outstanding job on the Seventh Circuit Court. However, I would be totally wrong to assume that. Stay tuned for the circus and pray for this lady and her family.