President Joe Biden on Friday said he will move forward with his own efforts to combat climate change and curb greenhouse gas emissions, a day after Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told Democratic leadership that he won’t support the climate provisions in the reconciliation bill.
The comments by Manchin, a key centrist who holds the swing vote in the 50-50 Senate, could potentially sink months of negotiations in Washington over the sweeping policy package and end hopes of Congress passing any major climate change legislation this summer.
“If the Senate will not move to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, I will take strong executive action to meet this moment,” Biden said in a statement.
The president did not mention specific climate and clean energy policies but said his actions will create jobs, improve energy security, bolster domestic manufacturing and supply chains and protect the economy from future oil and gas price hikes.
“I will not back down: The opportunity to create jobs and build a clean energy future is too important to relent,” the president said. Biden also urged lawmakers to act quickly to pass other portions of the package that the senator does support.
Manchin, who comes from the coal-rich state of West Virginia, has previously opposed some efforts by Democrats to address climate change and curb emissions. Because of the 50-50 vote split in the Senate, Democrats would not be able to move the legislation forward without Manchin’s support for the domestic policy bill, which would allocate billions of dollars in incentives to slash emissions.
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