[ Manchin’s exit should spark a bigger conversation about the
corruption that’s become a defining feature of the U.S. political
system.]
[[link removed]]

JOE MANCHIN AND THE LEGAL CORRUPTION THAT THREATENS OUR PLANET  
[[link removed]]


 

Basav Sen
December 13, 2023
The Hill
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Manchin’s exit should spark a bigger conversation about the
corruption that’s become a defining feature of the U.S. political
system. _

, Shutterstock

 

Sen. Joe Manchin 
[[link removed]](D-W.Va.) announced recently
[[link removed]] that
he won’t seek reelection in 2024, but he hasn’t ruled out
a potential third-party presidential campaign
[[link removed]].

For climate advocates especially, Manchin’s career embodied the
incredibly corrosive influence of fossil fuel money in politics. But
solving that problem will take a lot more than one senator stepping
down. 

The outgoing lawmaker reportedly received more fossil fuel industry
campaign money
[[link removed]] in
the last cycle than any other federal legislator — and is himself
a coal millionaire
[[link removed]].
Worse still, he leveraged his perch as the chair of the Senate
Energy and Natural Resources Committee
[[link removed]] to enact policies benefiting
his corporate donors and himself.

Manchin was the architect of a provision
[[link removed].] in
the Inflation Reduction Act
[[link removed]] requiring
oil and gas leasing on public lands and waters as a condition for any
renewable energy leasing. He championed provisions in
the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
[[link removed]] that subsidize
risky, unproven technologies
[[link removed]] such
as carbon capture and storage
[[link removed]] and hydrogen
[[link removed]] energy,
which greenwash continued fossil fuel production and use.

Perhaps his most infamous climate legacy is a deregulation bill known
to the environmental justice movement as “Manchin’s Dirty Deal
[[link removed]].”
After three failed attempts to pass it by attaching it to must-pass
government spending bills, Manchin finally managed to jam it into a
bill averting a government default. 

Manchin’s Dirty Deal weakens our environmental laws
[[link removed]] and
undermines the ability of communities to fight polluting projects
using the legal system. The bill requires agencies to issue permits
for the Mountain Valley Pipeline project without the customary review
and public comment process
[[link removed]] —
and exempts the permits from legal challenges.

This is a life and death issue for frontline communities who pay the
price for polluters’ profits in the form of disproportionately high
rates of cancer, asthma and other deadly illnesses
[[link removed]-(outdoor)-air-quality-and-health#:~:text=Air%20pollution%20is%20one%20of,acute%20respiratory%20diseases%2C%20including%20asthma.].
And it has the industry’s footprint — and bank slips — all over
it.

Manchin’s fossil fuel haul includes a combined sum of 
[[link removed]]about
$66,000
[[link removed]] from
Mountain Valley Pipeline developers NextEra Energy and Equitrans
Midstream, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit focused on tracking
money in politics. And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer 
[[link removed]](D-N.Y.), who negotiated a
backroom deal
[[link removed]] with
Manchin to pass the legislation and appointed him
[[link removed]] chair
of the energy committee in the first place, has himself reportedly
received 
[[link removed]]almost
$220,000
[[link removed]] in
campaign contributions from NextEra Energy.

Fossil-fueled corruption is a bipartisan problem. Per OpenSecrets,
the 
[[link removed]]top
20 recipients of oil and gas money
[[link removed]] in
Congress include three other Democrats apart from Manchin plus 16
Republicans, including former House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy 
[[link removed]](R-Calif.). All took
hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It’s also not a problem confined to the legislative branch. Among
many other recent Supreme Court scandals, Justice Clarence Thomas 
[[link removed]]reportedly
attended a fundraising event hosted by the right-wing Koch network
[[link removed]],
even as Koch-aligned organizations have brought cases before the
Supreme Court. The Koch family, of course, made its billions in
the oil industry
[[link removed]].

In the executive branch, the push for false solutions to the climate
crisis, such as carbon capture and hydrogen, has 
[[link removed]]extensive
support from industry-connected officials
[[link removed]] in
the Department of Energy and other executive branch agencies.

Corporate-backed corruption is a feature of state politics as well. A
particularly egregious example is the 
[[link removed]]First
Energy bribery scandal in Ohio
[[link removed]].

Utility company First Energy bribed Larry Householder, the former
Speaker of the Ohio House, and Matthew Borges, former chair of the
Ohio Republican Party, to get the legislature to pass a bailout of its
failing coal and nuclear plants, to be paid by Ohio ratepayers in the
form of higher bills. While Householder
[[link removed]] and Borges
[[link removed]] are
now in prison, First Energy has faced no significant consequences
beyond a paltry $230 million fine
[[link removed]],
which was less than the profit it made
[[link removed].] in
just the second fiscal quarter of 2023.

This kind of pervasive corruption — in both major parties and all
branches and levels of government — shouldn’t be normalized. 

Yet it receives very little media scrutiny apart from the coverage of
particular scandals, which are often treated as isolated incidents
instead of part of a wider pattern. And some things that should be
scandals — such as Manchin using his position to enrich his
corporate donors at the expense of frontline communities and our
shared planetary future — often aren’t treated as scandals at all.

Treatment of any illness has to start with a correct diagnosis. To
save our planet and its most vulnerable people, Manchin’s exit
should spark a bigger conversation about the corruption that’s
become a defining feature of the U.S. political system.

_Basav Sen directs the Climate Policy Program at the Institute for
Policy Studies._

* fossil fuels
[[link removed]]
* political corruption
[[link removed]]
* Joe Manchin
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]