Which House Dems Will Stand Firm Against Climate Catastrophe?
Do “progressives” have the guts to block Joe Manchin’s proposal to make it easier to permit destructive energy projects that will make Climate Change worse? Schumer will make it difficult for progressives to act progressive by putting Manchin’s “side deal” into a must-pass CR to keep the government open. If the government can’t protect us from Climate catastrophe and from Manchin’s corruption, it doesn’t deserve to be open anyway.
Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, has demanded that Manchin’s bill stand alone for an up or down vote and be attached to the CR, which Schumer is planning to do. The environmental justice community is lobbying Democrats to stand up to party leadership and vote the filthy Schumer-Manchin deal down. I don’t expect any of the whiny Democratic senators to actually vote no— maybe Bernie— but in the House… well, I guess we’re about to see how much Climate Change really means to our favorite members of Congress.
Fox News reported that Manchin’s bill hasn’t been made public but “would set timelines by which environmental agencies must conduct reviews for proposed projects. It would also require the federal government to hold more leasing auctions for the right to drill on federal land.” Manchin gets paid off— not just with campaign dollars— by the special interests that helped him write the proposal. “Manchin's biggest prize in the deal, however, is provisions of the expected bill that would catalyze approval of a natural gas pipeline running for more than 300 miles through Virginia and West Virginia. The $6.6 billion Mountain Valley Pipeline was started in 2014 and is nearly 90% complete, but has stalled in recent months among environmental lawsuits.”
Rashida Tlaib (D-MI): “We will be united in defeating the separate Manchin ‘permitting reforms’ that will accelerate climate change and pollute Black, brown, Indigenous and low-income communities. Manchin went back on his word to get [Build Back Better] done, and we owe him nothing now.” Creating a drama, Fox reported that “Tlaib and others from the 98-member Congressional Progressive Caucus are pledging to vote against the permitting bill if it comes up for a vote in the House. The opposition could be costly given that Speaker Nancy Pelosi can only lose four Democrats on any bill before having to rely on the GOP.”
There will be plenty of Republicans who would be delighted to step in for any progressives who vote no. As for “98 progressives”… what a laugh. Most of them are ready and eager to vote for the bill, sight unseen. Remember, Mark Pocan has made it possible for all kinds of conservative scum to join the Progressive Caucus— from Donald Norcross (New Dem-NJ), Adam Smith (New Dem-WA_, Shontel Brown (New Dem-OH), Don Beyer (New Dem-VA), Jimmy Panetta (New Dem-CA), Lisa Blunt Rochester (New Dem-DE), Madeleine Dean (New Dem-PA), Juan Vargas (New Dem, CA), and Darren Soto (New Dem-FL) to Andre Carson (New Dem-IN), Troy Carter (New Dem-LA), Joe Morelle (New Dem-NY), Brendan Boyle (New Dem-PA). And then there are the "progressives" who have no values at all and are just plain and simple for sale, like Hakeem Jeffries (NY), Ritchie Torres (NY) and Frank Pallone (NJ). I can’t wait to see the vote!