Statement: Senator Manchin on Climate Spending in Reconciliation Package

HECHO calls on the Senate to address the urgent need for climate solutions as a part of the reconciliation package. Last week, Senator Joe Manchin said he put the brakes on the Democrats’ tax and climate agenda in order to wait for July inflation data and to see what the Federal Reserve does next – but is willing to consider moving ahead in September.  

The Senator from West Virginia said Friday that he told Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer he wouldn’t agree to go forward with an economic package that includes tax and climate provisions before an August congressional recess.   

Senator Manchin said last December that he would not back the $2 trillion Build Back Better package, which included major climate provisions. Since then, Manchin has returned to the negotiating table with both Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and a bipartisan group of senators. Manchin had previously expressed doubt about new spending following the report that inflation surged 9.1 percent over the last year, the highest annual rate since 1981. 

The stakes are too high for frontline, rural, and poor communities for Senators to walk away from clean energy and climate solutions in a reconciliation package. HECHO urges all Senators to continue climate negotiations, and specifically calls on Senator Joe Manchin to reconsider his current stance on critical climate spending.