Manchin, J

===

LCV 50%

keeps showing up as defector on fossil fuels

also gun bipart w/ toomey

swings with heitkamp, kingmaker in early biden admin, walked back on filibuster?

===

an 621

no lnx

Leaked recordings reveal Joe Manchin's real thoughts on filibuster and Jan 6 commission

Manchin under fire for prioritizing business by threatening to block infrastructure bill over corporate tax hike

Sky Palma June 16, 2021

In a private call this Monday that was obtained by The Intercept, Joe Manchin (D-WV) talked to major political donors during a meeting organized by the group No Labels, which The Intercept describes as a big money operation co-founded by former Sen. Joe Lieberman "that funnels high-net-worth donor money to conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans."

Interestingly, Manchin seemed open to filibuster reform -- a private stance that contradicts his public one.

"The call included several billionaire investors and corporate executives, among them Louis Bacon, chief executive of Moore Capital Management; Kenneth D. Tuchman, founder of global outsourcing company TeleTech; and Howard Marks, the head of Oaktree Capital, one of the largest private equity firms in the country," writes The Intercept's Lee Fang and Ryan Grim. "The Zoom participant log included a dial-in from Tudor Investment Corporation, the hedge fund founded by billionaire Paul Tudor Jones. Also present was a roster of heavy-hitting political influencers, including Republican consultant Ron Christie and Lieberman, who serves as a representative of No Labels and now advises corporate interests."

Manchin told the meeting's attendees that he needed help getting Republicans to vote in favor of a Jan. 6 commission in order to strip the "far left" of their best argument against the filibuster.

In regards to Missouri GOP Sen. Roy Blunt, Manchin said, "Roy Blunt is a great, just a good friend of mine, a great guy."

"Roy is retiring. If some of you all who might be working with Roy in his next life could tell him, that'd be nice and it'd help our country," Manchin continued. "That would be very good to get him to change his vote. And we're going to have another vote on this thing. That'll give me one more shot at it."

Read the full report over at The Intercept.

POW

https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/joe-manchin-2652971342

badash

**U.S. Senator Joe Manchin** (D-WV) has just announced he will not support HR1, the critical voting rights protection and expansion bill already passed by the House of Representatives.

"I believe Democrats and Republicans feel very strongly about protecting the ballot boxes allowing people to protect the right to vote making it accessible making it fair and making it secure," Manchin told ABC News' Rachel Scott.

Republicans in at least 11 states have passed into law voter suppression bills, some of which literally reduce the number of ballot boxes, and access to those boxes, dramatically.

Manchin, who is more conservative than Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, voiced support for the far less comprehensive John Lewis Voting Rights Act, saying, "if we apply that to all 50 states and territories, it's something that can be done — it should be done."

"It could be done bipartisan to start getting confidence back in our system," he added, ignoring that the ones who destroyed confidence in the voting system are the Republicans.

On Tuesday Republicans on the Senate Rules Committee deadlocked the vote for the For the People Act, legislation that not only would secure voter protections but address rampant Republican gerrymandering as well as regulate dangerous dark money in politics. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer now will need at least one Republican to support the For the People Act if it is to even get to the floor for a vote.

Some political analysts say that given there is legislation in 48 states to suppress the vote, if Democrats don't pass HR1, they will lose both the House and the Senate next year.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

the truth about Joe Biden's 'Manchin problem'

John Stoehr

February 23, 2021

Joe Biden and the Democratic Party do not have a Joe Manchin problem. Not yet anyway. But some leftists are already predicting the imminent fate of the president's domestic agenda, which is to say, its doom. They point to Manchin's comments about the...

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/ted-cruz-2649965748

Three House Democrats from Texas have called on party leaders in the U.S. Senate to back the expulsion of a member of their state's congressional delegation, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, for what they term "seditious" behavior related to the insurrectionist mob that overran the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Signed by Reps. Veronica Escobar, Joaquin Castro, and Sylvia Garcia—all from Texas—a Friday letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (soon to exchange title) argued that it "is evident that Senator Cruz echoed Trump's false voter fraud claims for political gain, going so far as sending a fundraising plea during the armed stand-off in the Capitol where members of Congress, staff, and journalists were held hostage for hours."

In addition to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Cruz led the Republican effort in the Senate to block certification of President-elect Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory by making baseless claims of voter fraud—the same false claims made by Trump and those in the mob who ransacked the U.S. Capitol in an insurrectionist effort that left five people dead, including one Capitol Police Officer who was murdered.

Cruz's conduct, Escobar said in a tweet that mirrored the letter's message, "was seditious. He must be held accountable and expelled from the Senate."

.@SenTedCruz’s objection to the election helped incite the January 6 attack, gave credence to a process that had no… https://t.co/M2x1XGgtF0

— Rep. Veronica Escobar (@Rep. Veronica Escobar)1610763343.0

The letter argues that "Cruz's objection to the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris helped incite the attack and gave credence to a process that had no chance of succeeding and put all of us in danger."

"In his effort to appease Donald Trump and his supporters," it continued, "Cruz encouraged these terrorists to wage armed insurrection against America."

The Texas lawmakers cite Article I, Section 5 of the U.S. Constitution—which allows for the punishment, including expulsion, for "disorderly behavior" by a member—to argue that Schumer and McConnell have the authority to initiate such a process for Cruz.

On Saturday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.)—the most right-wing member of the Democratic caucus—said that the 14th Amendment "should be a consideration" for both Cruz and Hawley.

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states that no U.S. lawmaker holding office "shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability."

While Manchin says, he gets "along fine" with Cruz, "what he did was totally outside the realm of our responsibilities or our privileges."

Progressives, meanwhile, have consistently called for both Hawley and Cruz to resign or be removed ever since last week's attack.

They wore Auschwitz shirts, erected gallows, and tried to hang the Vice President. Your continued excusal and deni… https://t.co/ZWXmIQYoXk

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)1610214533.0

"There can be no normalizing or looking away from what played out before our eyes," Sen. Patty Murray, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said last week as she called on both Cruz and Hawley to resign.

"The violent mob that attacked the Capitol was made up of people who don't accept democracy, and want to take this country by use of force," she stated. "Any Senator who stands up and supports the power of force over the power of democracy has broken their oath of office."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

yelled at mcconn on covid bill

kott pol op ~ bernie

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/historically-rich-people-have-fought-to-stop-politicians-like-sanders-making-his-rise-all-the-more-unlikely/

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/02/who-is-funding-the-anti-bernie-sanders-super-pac/

Several outside groups are trying to slow the momentum of current Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) by spending millions on ad buys, as he continues to dominate the polls.

The campaign against Sanders originated with hybrid PAC Democratic Majority for Israel, a pro-Israel moderate group, that spent over $1.4 million against Sanders. The group spent over $800,000 running ads against the frontrunning Democratic presidential candidate in Iowa and it’s spending $600,000 in Nevada, according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission. ...

decides not to run for gov, keep sen seat djt won by 42 pts

https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/joe-manchin-just-gave-democrats-a-much-better-chance-of-taking-the-senate/

A bad Democratic senator is a whole lot better than a Republican one’: If Joe Manchin leaves the Senate, his GOP successor will be even worse

Alex Henderson

On Thursday, The Hill reported that West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, feeling fed up with the bitter partisanship in Congress, is considering leaving the U.S. Senate — and some of…

The memo notes that they believe Justice Anthony Kennedy will soon retire, and the effort to replace him will be “far more contentious” than the effort to confirm Justice Neil Gorsuch.

“If President Trump nominates a principled, constructionist nominee for Justice Kennedy’s seat or any other vacant seat, we anticipate engaging with both grassroots and under-the-dome tactics, bringing paid and earned media and events to support the confirmation.” The memo notes that the network sponsored pressure effort on Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.; and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., all of whom eventually voted to confirm Gorsuch.

In Indian Wells, California, last month, the network held a retreat with 700 donors. Several journalists were invited to attend as long as they promised not to name the donors present.

Operatives from the network also led sessions to explain how to move forward into the midterm elections. The Koch brothers intend to spend $400 million to preserve the Republican majority in Congress and maintain GOP power at the state level.

In recent days, Koch network groups have purchased ads targeting Democratic lawmakers in key elections across the country. This week, a new ad began airing in Missouri criticizing DemocraticSen. Claire McCaskill,who is up for re-election this year.

“We’ve made more progress in the last five years than I had in the last 50,” Charles Koch reportedly said. “The capabilities we have now can take us to a whole new level.”

Senate moved Wednesday to end an Obama-era policy that warns auto lenders against discriminating against people of color by charging them more on auto loans. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin joined Republicans in a 51 to 47 vote to overrule the policy by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—an agency that’s been assailed by Republicans since its creation in 2010. The House is expected to approve the bill and to send it to President Trump for his signature. The rule was adopted after a 2011 report by the Center for Responsible Lending found African Americans and Latinos disproportionately received interest rate markups more frequently and to a greater degree than their white counterparts.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/382030-gop-worries-blankenship-surge-will-cost-party-w-va-senate-seat

OMFG

W.VA. — A former coal CEO’s post-prison rise is scrambling the GOP battle to unseat Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin(W.Va.).

Don Blankenship, released from jail less than a year ago, now appears to be within striking distance of the party’s nomination.

Strategists — and even his primary opponents — acknowledge he’s managed to turn an expected showdown between Rep. Evan Jenkins(W.Va.) and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey into a three-way fight with roughly a month to go until the May 8 primary election.

“It is a weird little race right now, [but] it’s looking like a legitimate three-person race,” said a national GOP strategist who is monitoring the Senate fight.

Blankenship’s anti-establishment message is resonating in a state that has turned increasingly red. Recent internal polling from Morrisey and Jenkins place him in second place — with first place varying based on the candidate releasing the polling.

...

https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/trump-brings-back-coal-miner-jobs-deaths-soar

Newsweek

Coal miner Rodney Osborne was towards the end of a double shift at the Gateway Eagle Mine in West Virginia in June when the 32-year-old was crushed to death by a rotating drill. A subsequent investigation revealed that Osborne, who had been working at the Boone County mine for just five months, had not received adequate safety training on the device.

The state's junior senator, Shelley Moore Capito, said she was heartbroken by the news of Osborne's death, then reminded her constituents that "West Virginia coal miners like Rodney selflessly put so much on the line to ... power our state."

Osborne was not the only miner who paid the ultimate price. In all, 15 miners died since President Donald Trump took office in 2017—up from eight in all of 2016.

This is the dirty secret of Trump’s much-touted effort to help the coal industry. The president has been quick to celebrate the 771 workers that were hired in 2017, but the administration's push to support the dirtiest of fossil fuels has been accompanied by a surge in deaths of the workers who procure it. The 2017 death toll was the highest since 2014—when there were roughly 60,000 more miners at work in America.

Mining advocates put some of the blame on the president, whose support for mine owners has led to relaxed safety enforcement, scores of inexperienced new miners and inconsistent commitment to training programs and courses. In the meantime, Republicans in the House want to cut mine safety budgets further, and Trump, who says he supports coal miners, has been silent on a Senate bill that would shore up miners' pensions.

“When you look at the Trump administration policies and his ratcheting back of regulations ... this administration has no moral compass about ethics,” said Joe Main, who ran the Mine Safety and Health Administration under President Barack Obama. “Companies now think we have a less aggressive sheriff in town.”

Trump’s support for coal is part of a larger economic vision of deregulation—one that he says is responsible for the stock market’s recent boom and higher gross domestic product.

“The stock market is way up (because) we took off restrictions and we took off regulations,” he said on January 16.

But for coal miners, those restrictions and regulations can be the difference between life and death.

A majority of the 15 victims were new to their job site and seven deaths involved miners with one year or less experience at the mine where they died, data show.

“There’s been a whole new generation of people hired into coal industry, younger workers who haven’t had the benefit of enough training,” said Phil Smith, spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America. “But companies are resistant to taking time to take them off production to train them.”

The results can be deadly—and not only for new workers.

In May, Luches “Big Lou” Rosser, 44, was traveling on an electric locomotive deep in a West Virginia mine when his head hit a steel beam, killing him. The official investigation into his death found that Rosser, a husband and father of three, hadn’t been properly trained on the machine. He knew how it worked, but was never briefed on safety procedures.

“Showing someone how to push a button isn’t a training,” said Smith.

In July, Andrew Oxenrider, a 28-year-old with seven years on the job, exited his Caterpillar D9L bulldozer on the slope of a refuse bank. Oxenrider had not been trained in proper parking procedures for that model, and the bulldozer rolled backwards, killing him before falling to the bottom of the embankment.

And then there's the case of Osborne, who disabled his drilling machine's emergency shutoff system so he could make a minor alignment adjustment—only to get pinned between the cutter head and the coal seam, suffering "fatal crushing injuries," state investigators revealed.

State officials issued seven citations to Rockwell Mining, including two that carry a $10,000 fine. But so far, the Trump administration's mine safety agency has only recommended education.

Coal mining is inherently dangerous, with zero margin for error even under the best conditions. The average height of a mine tunnel is about three and a half feet, so miners crawl or duck-walk while avoiding big, mobile electrical equipment. Even a small lapse in safety can be catastrophic.

“I have been to too many mine explosions and funerals,” said West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat. “Too many miners have died for us to get to where we are today. We can not go backwards on safety.”

Last year’s death count suggests a step back. For the first seven months of the Trump administration, the top position at MSHA remained vacant. Congressional aide and White House adviser Wayne Palmer was finally put in charge of the agency in late August, but he had no experience in mining or mine safety.

Under Palmer's oversight, MSHA proposed changing language about when safety inspections must be done at metal and non-metal mines. Instead of mandating the inspection before laborers enter a mine, operators could do the check "as miners begin their work," a wording that allows mine owners to start a shift before an inspection, putting miners in potentially dangerous situations.

The National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association, an industry group that spent $300,000 to lobby for the rule change and featured former Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski as the keynote speaker at its annual convention, was pleased with the new language, writing that "it appears that MSHA is willing to listen to the industry."

In the fall, Trump finally appointed David Zatezalo, a retired coal mining executive, to run the Mine Safety and Health Administration, but Zatezalo has a questionable commitment to miners’ welfare, advocates say.

His Rhino Eastern Eagle mine in West Virginia, for example, was hit with multiple violations in 2010 and 2011. All together, Rhino mines have been issued more than $2.1 million in fines for 162 workplace safety or health violations since 2000.

Now Zatezalo runs an agency charged with creating training initiatives, monitoring accidents, and, most important, carrying out safety inspections at mines several times a year. Critics say he is a pawn of industry.

“He’s a former coal operator, he’s not a mine safety advocate,” said Tony Oppegard, a mine safety lawyer.

This week, Zatezalo told Newsweekthat the Trump Administration is committed to the health and safety of America’s miners. "At MSHA, our focus is on ensuring that every miner is able to return safely to their loved ones at the end of every shift," he said. "To ensure the health and safety of miners, MSHA will continue to conduct inspections, and vigorously emphasize safety enforcement, education and training."

Such inspections and training are mandated by federal laws, but miner advocates are not convinced that Zatezalo will aggressively enforce them.

“[Zatezalo] might call the district manager in Barbourville, Kentucky and tell them how he wants the agency to run,” said Oppegard. “Influential mine operators might also call MSHA directly and say, ‘Your inspector is giving me a hard time,’ the head would then call the district manager and say, ‘Lay off.’ That kind of stuff happens. It really does.”

Main, the former MSHA director, said it is likely to get worse.

“If the perception of the industry is these guys are backing off, it won’t play out well for safety,” he said. “Word gets around the industry, and you know what’s going to happen there.”

Smith already sees alarming changes at MSHA, such as emphasizing a more-lenient safety check system called “compliance assistance," which was a key program under President George W. Bush. If a compliance assistant visits a mine and notices a safety or health violation, he or she does not have the authority to issue a citation or fine, the way an official inspector would.

They’re essentially tourists in a mine, said Smith.

If such assistants see “something going on in a mine that’s bad or wrong, they can only ask the company to fix it,” he added. “The company can easily say, ‘No we don’t think it’s a problem’ and that’s the end of it. There’s no enforcement.”

MSHA responded to the recent surge in deaths by increasing the size of its compliance assistance plan, a voluntary program for mine operators. Advocates say compliance assistance is typically most popular with deregulation Republicans.

“You know one administration, a Democratic administration, is interested in enforcement and wants to do enforcement. And a Republican administration wants to do compliance assistance,” Celeste Monforton, a former MSHA official and occupational health researcher, told *Ohio Valley Resource* as mining deaths were on the rise last year.

MSHA still uses official inspectors to carry out its mandatory inspections of all underground mines four times a year and all surface mines twice a year, and compliance assistance programs existed under Democratic presidents, as well. But the Trump administration has further dulled its teeth.

In the past, for example, all compliance assistants were to be accompanied by miners' representatives, but that is no longer the case, Smith said.

Compliance assistance is “a complete waste of time,” added Oppegard. “You can directly link the reliance on this method of inspection with an increase in mining disasters and fatalities.”

Annual miner deaths did increase twice during the Bush administration and were higher than under his successor, Barack Obama, who, in 2009, brought total miner deaths down below 20 for the first time in American history.

Manchin expressed his own concerns, telling Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta in a letter in September that MSHA inspectors were being instructed to remove their Representative Status credentials. Without the credentials, inspectors are not allowed to issue violations or remove miners from unsafe conditions.

"By separating the MSHA inspector from his or her credentials, one is essentially removing the ability of that MSHA inspector to issue an order to remove miners from the unsafe area and issue a violation which, particularly in the event of an imminent danger, can prove perilous," Manchin wrote.

He also questioned why miners' representatives were no longer able to walk with compliance assistants. "This is particularly alarming because, no one is better suited to spot inconsistencies or unsafe conditions that the very people who work at the mine day in and day out," Manchin wrote.

In the midst of the current mine safety crisis, Congress has proposed to cut MSHA’s coal enforcement budget by $11 million or 7 percent in the next fiscal year, leaving the agency with its lowest budget since FY 2013. Trump originally proposed to leave MSHA’s budget largely untouched but to reduce staffing by 42 positions.

“The proposed budget cut is absolutely a move towards reducing the inspectors in the coal industry,” said Smith, adding that the plan will result in an agency staffed by “inexperienced inspectors.”

“It takes five years to take an inspector up to speed,” Main added. “These are things that are really important to the life of a miner.”

Main said he worries about long-term leadership trickling out of the agency. “I was struggling to keep the agency functioning with the budget we had. Any additional cuts would hamper its ability to keep working,” he said.

On-site injuries are only one aspect of the job. Sustained exposure to coal dust leads to a number of respiratory diseases, such as black lung disease, a progressive illness with no cure. More than 76,000 miners have died of black lung since 1968.

Last month, Trump announced that MSHA was reconsidering rules intended to protect miners from breathing in the dust that causes black lung. And in his first days as president, Trump eliminatedan Obama-era rule blocking coal companies from dumping waste into streams. Miner advocates say these rule changes and others are all about appeasing mine owners, not workers.

“They’re receiving a lot of complaints from coal operators that these rules are wasteful and useless, but that’s just false,” said Smith.

MSHA says it is still taking comments about these rules, which went into effect in 2014 and aim to lower the concentration of respirable coal mine dust in the air, but Oppegard believes there’s only one reason to revisit them: “To raise the amount of dust miners can breathe in up again or to create other loopholes where operators could violate the standard.”

Smith added that such air quality rules don't get in the way of industry profits and are simply necessary.

“All of these regulations exist because someone was killed at work,” he said. “All those laws and regulations are written in a dead miner’s blood.”

Manchin disagrees, claiming that there are just too many environmental rules. “Some of the stuff doesn’t make sense and makes it hard for people to do their job,” he said.

Manchin is most upset with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who he says refuses to fund the pensions of 117,000 retired coal miners and dependents, who are at risk of losing their retirement funds due to the declining coal industry.

A Senate bill has 21 co-sponsors, but McConnell won't move it and Trump hasn't pushed the issue, Manchin said.

“We’re not talking big numbers here,” said Manchin. “Most pensions top out at $500 or $600 each month.”

Manchin added that Trump has been a sympathetic ear on the issue, but has not acted. To Joe Main, that means Trump's rhetoric about caring for coal miners is empty.

“I don't think I’ve ever heard the president talk about this pension,” he said. “These are people who produced the energy for this country to grow, they’re owed healthcare and a darn pension.”

Trump’s efforts to prop up the coal industry are bucking decades of decline for the mineral, mostly due to a drop in global demand. Even with hundreds of new miners hired last year, the solar and wind industries still employed nearly three times as many people as the coal industry. Half of America’s coal-fired plants have shuttered since 2010 and since Trump took office at least 17 plants have announced they’ll be closing shop. Coal isn’t cost-competitive with cheaper natural gas and it faces new competition as the cost of renewable energy continues to decline.

Coal is a leading source of carbon emissions, and many nations are weaning themselves off the pollutant to fight climate change, even as officials in the United States deny some realities about global warming. Exports of coal fell 23 percent in 2015 and another 32 percent through the first half of 2016, though domestic production is slightly up, thanks to a growing economy under Trump.

“I’m the one that saved coal,” the president said in a year-end interview. “I’m the one that created jobs.”

But on the homefront, Trump’s call to end the “war on coal” appealed to his base: wealthy, anti-regulation industry leaders and blue-collar workers nostalgic for a past they likely never knew. Trump’s support for coal countered Hillary Clinton, who was widely misquoted during the campaign that she would intentionally “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”

Trump carried eight of the top nine coal-mining states in the 2016 election

===

tiny ray of hope:

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., voted against Zatezalo’s confirmation, saying that, after looking at his “qualifications and record of safety during his time in the coal industry,” he is “not convinced Zatezalo is suited to oversee the federal agency that implements and enforces mine safety laws and standards.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/05/10/senates-poised-to-repeal-a-final-obama-era-rule-as-soon-as-wednesday/

no link many

Senate unexpectedly rejects bid to repeal a key Obama-era environmental regulation

By Chelsea Harvey and Juliet Eilperin May 10 at 12:10 PM

Oil pumps and natural gas burn off in Watford City, N.D. Methane emissions will likely be the next big environmental issue to face North Dakota’s booming oil industry according to a top official at the state’s Department of Health. (AP/Charles Rex Arbogast)

This story has been updated.

The U.S. Senate narrowly voted down a resolution on Wednesday to repeal an Obama-era rule restricting methane emissions from drilling on public lands — with three Republicans joining every Democrat to preserve the rule.

The 51 to 49 vote marked the first time since Trump’s election that Republicans have failed in their attempt to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn Obama-era rules.

Thirteen earlier resolutions, based on the 1996 law that allows Congress to overturn rules within 60 days of their adoption, all succeeded. But the deadline for repealing such regulations through the Congressional Review Act is on Thursday.

The methane emissions rule, issued by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management in November, addresses a potent greenhouse gas that is accelerating climate change.

[Earth could break through a major climate threshold in the next 15 years, scientists warn]

The rule would force oil and gas companies to capture methane that had been previously burned off or “flared” at drilling sites.

The previous administration estimated the rule would prevent roughly 180,000 tons a year of methane from escaping into the atmosphere and would boost federal revenue because firms pay only royalties on the federal resources they capture and contain.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) unexpectedly voted no against a motion to proceed with consideration of the resolution, along with GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.). Two Democrats who had considered backing the rule’s elimination — Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — voted against the motion as well.

In a floor speech after the vote, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), said “the very first victory” lawmakers have had in beating back a Congressional Review Act bill this year came from a combination of Democratic unity and a few Republicans’ willingness to buck their leadership. “Thank you so much for coming forward and seeing the common sense nature of this issue,” Udall said, referring to Collins, Graham and McCain.

Jamie Williams, president of The Wilderness Society, praised the lawmakers who supported the rule. “In recent months, thousands of Americans asked the Senate to stand up for clean air and against the oil lobby, and their efforts were successful today,” he said.

Republicans and industry officials said they would now switch their focus to getting the Interior Department to rewrite the rule.

Barry Russell, president of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said his group “looks forward to working with the Interior Department on a targeted, meaningful solution that will achieve the common goal of ensuring the American taxpayers receive a fair and equitable return in the form of royalties while developing a workable regulation, instead of this one-size-fits-all approach.”

[EPA dismisses half of key board’s scientific advisers; Interior suspends more than 200 advisory panels]

And Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said in a statement that Interior should withdraw the regulation outright. “If left in place, this regulation will only discourage energy production, job creation, and economic opportunity across the West.”

Before this year, Congress had only nullified one rule, a regulation on ergonomics Bill Clinton enacted during his final year in office. In less than four months Republicans have wiped away rules covering everything from limits on the dumping of waste from surface mining operations to enlarging states’ power to offer retirement accounts to private-sector workers.

But the move to strike a rule requiring companies to limit the practice of flaring, or leaking, methane from oil and gas operations on federal and tribal land had given some Republicans–who control 52 seats in the Senate–pause.

Senate Press Gallery ? @SenatePress

#senate vote on HJ Res 36, the CRA on the methane rule was NOT agreed to 49-51. Collins, Graham and McCain joined all Dems/IND against.

7:27 AM - 10 May 2017

236 236 Retweets 516 516 likes

Many Republicans and fossil fuel producers criticized the regulation after it was finalized last year, and a resolution to repeal it passed quickly in the House of Representatives at the end of January. But despite Trump’s support, the repeal measure had been sitting in the Senate for months. It had to pass by Thursday to be eligibleto be signed into law.

Democrats, as well as environmental and public health groups, ran a months-long campaign to persuade Heitkamp and Manchin not to disclose their position publicly while arguing to centrist Republicans that abolishing the rule would cost taxpayers money as well as harm the environment.

[Trump undertakes the most ambitious regulatory rollback since Reagan]

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) also remained on the fence until Monday, when he announced in a statement that he would vote to overturn the BLM regulation. Two other wavering Republicans, Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Dean Heller (Nev.), ultimately joined Portman in voting to proceed with the bill’s consideration.

“Unfortunately, the previous administration’s methane rule was not a balanced approach,” Portman said. “As written, it would have hurt our economy and cost jobs in Ohio by forcing small independent operators to close existing wells and slowing responsible energy production on federal lands. There’s a better way.”

He added that he believes the Interior Department should still work to reduce venting and flaring on public lands. Last week, Portman wrote to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, calling for a commitment that the department would continue to work to reduce methane waste if the Obama rule were reversed. On May 4, Zinke responded, affirming that “the Department is committed to reducing methane waste, and under my leadership, we will take important steps to accomplish this goal.”

Environmentalists urged Portman to reconsider. In a statement on Tuesday, Environmental Defense Action Fund Executive Director Fred Krupp said Zinke’s assurances were “unfounded” and argued that the strategies for reducing methane waste outlined in his letter would have little impact.

A coalition of industry groups have argued they are taking steps to reduce fugitive methane emissions, because they recognize capturing them can yield additional profits. The American Petroleum Institute noted that the Environmental Protection Agency data, released in March, shows about an 8 percent drop in methane emissions from petroleum production since 2014, largely because of improved gas venting and flaring techniques.

The legislative window for Congressional Review Act resolutions to be considered ends on Thursday, though a handful of conservative analysts believe that agencies’ failure to submit a 2-page report on previous rules to Congress could open the door to reconsideration of dozens of much older rules.

Curtis Copeland, a regulatory expert who specialized in American government at the Congressional Research Service, said in an email that regardless of how many rules this Congress ultimately overturns, “The CRA can no longer be described as ‘obscure’ or ‘little known.’ It now has to be viewed as a substantive tool of congressional oversight regarding an outgoing President’s rules, and it is likely be used again in the future.”

this POW has got to go

THE SENATE VOTED to confirm Donald Trump’s pick for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency today over the objections of Democratic senators, hundreds of former EPA officials, and hundreds of current EPA employees. Although an Oklahoma judge had ruled on Thursday that Pruitt’s office had to release more than 2,500 emails he had exchanged with energy and gas companies and industry groups, Republicans crammed through his confirmation in a 52-46 vote (with Democrats Joe Manchin and Heidi Heitkamp voting with the Republican majority) before anyone had a chance to review the emails exchanged with the companies he’s now in charge of regulating.

http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/02/trump-to-sign-repeal-of-obama-era-coal-mining-regulation/

Donald Trump is expected to sign legislation repealing a regulation finalized in the final weeks of the Obama administration that would have severely restricted coal mining in Appalachia.

Both chambers of Congress passed resolutions under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) repealing an Interior Department rule on coal mine discharge into nearby streams.

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to rollback federal regulations targeting coal mining. Trump said he’d sign the repeal bill because he’s “committed to reviving America’s coal mining communities, which have been hurting for too long.”

Trump said in a statement that the $1.2 billion Stream Protection Rule “duplicates existing protections in the Clean Water Act and is unnecessary given the other Federal and State regulations already in place.”

The Senate passed the CRA repealing the Stream Protection Rule Thursday afternoon. Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota joined Republicans in supporting the rule’s repeal. The House passed a CRA on the rule Wednesday.

Environmentalists –obviously– oppose repealing the Stream Protection Rule, saying the rule protects streams from coal mine pollution.

//lucas house

S. 543: EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2015

Introduced:

Feb 24, 2015

Status:

Referred to Committee on Feb 24, 2015

This bill was assigned to a congressional committee on February 24, 2015, which will consider it before possibly sending it on to the House or Senate as a whole.

Sponsor:

John Boozman

Senior Senator from Arkansas

Republican

Sen. Manchin, Joe, III [D-WV]*	02/24/2015
Sen. Inhofe, James M. [R-OK]*	02/24/2015

Since they were first proposed nearly a year ago, Republican lawmakers have relentlessly attacked the EPA’s new power plant emissions standards.

Even this week, Senate Republicans introduced legislation that would not only roll back the new standards but,according to The Hill, would make it nearly impossible for the EPA to rewrite the rules for power plants. Though they claim the new legislation is “bipartisan,” only one Democrat signed onto it: Senator Joe Manchin from the coal state of West Virginia.

To put the EPA’s rules succinctly, these health and safety measures require existing power plants to reduce emissions with carbon capture technology, or by reducing total output. New power plants will be required to be built with technology that reduces emissions.

The Republicans object to these standards because they claim that they will destroy the coal industry and put thousands of Americans out of work, causing a devastating ripple effect throughout the national economy. It's an age-old industry argument that never comes true, from the days when we abandoned whale oil, removed lead from gasoline or required seat belts in cars.

And a new report turns the Republicans' “job killing EPA regulations” argument on its head. Think Progress explains:

Researchers at private consulting firm Industrial Economics and the University of Maryland-based Interindustry Economic Research Fund credit efficiency improvements and lower electricity bills with adding about 273,000 jobs over the next 26 years. The analysts project that the plan will add 74,000 jobs by 2020. The findings support the EPA’s contention that the Clean Power Plan will not hurt the economy.

The real reason for the objection from the GOP is that it will cost the coal industry a little bit of money. And if the industry has to spend money making their power plants less lethal, it might not be able to match the $5.6 million in campaign contributions that they gave to Republicans in 2014, or even the $7.7 million that they gave to Republicans in 2012.

Those campaign contributions come to a little more than $13.3 million in the last four years, and apparently that amount of money is worth more to the Republican Party than the collective lives of more than 3,500 American citizens. That’s how many lives a new study claims can be saved by implementing the new standards.

The New York Times has more on the new study, which was a joint effort between Harvard University and Syracuse University:

The health benefits of the rule would be indirect. While carbon emissions trap heat in the atmosphere, which contributes to a warming planet, they are not directly linked to health threats. Emissions from coal-fired power plants, however, also include a number of other pollutants, such as soot and ozone, that are directly linked to illnesses like asthma and lung disease.

Researchers calculated that the changes in the EPA rule could prevent 3,500 premature deaths a year and more than 1,000 heart attacks and hospitalizations from air-pollution-related illness.

The Republican Party has put the value of an American life at less than $3,800. That’s the total amount of their recent campaign contributions from the coal industry divided by the number of lives that could be saved by these new rules. If you happen to live near a power plant, you should know how much your life is worth to your elected officials.

http://www.alternet.org/environment/fighting-epa-rules-congress-thinks-your-life-worth-less-3800

Landrieu called for the vote less than 24 hours after President Obama announced a historic agreement with China to limit carbon emissions, making her formal request on the Senate floor yesterday evening. She claimed that the recent election results showed Americans wanted more bipartisan action. She told the Senate, “The public has clearly spoken. The bill needs to be approved today. Not in January, not in February, not in March.”

With several other Democrats on her side, including West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, South Dakota’s Heidi Heitcamp and Montana’s Jon Tester, there’s a possibility it could clear the 60-vote bar in the Senate and head for President Obama’s desk next week.

Governor “Baloney” Joe Manchin is trying to line up support for five coal-to-liquids plants in the state. Each one these experimental facilities will cost a couple of billion dollars—to be heavily subsidized by taxpayers in the poorest state in the US, of course. Manchin strip mined his own family land to fuel a gob plant there. Combine this with his refusal to help build a safe new school at Marsh Fork Elementary, which is within 300 feet of a coal processing plant and at the foot of a 2.8 billion gallon toxic coal waste dam, and you see that Baloney Joe is a truly a fossil fool of the highest order.

===

Joe Manchin III is a Democratic U.S. Senator from West Virginia since November 2010. Previously he was governor of West Virginia 2005 to 2010.^[1]

Contents[hide]

Bio

2008 elections

Manchin was a superdelegate in the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

2010 elections

Then governor Manchin called for a special election to be held November 2010 to replace Sen. Robert Byrd (D) who died June 28, 2010 at age 92. Manchin appointed a placeholder senator, Carte Goodwin (D) in July 2010. Manchin then ran for the Senate seat himself and beat Republican John Raese in the November 2010 election and was sworn in less than two weeks later.^[1]

Money in politics

Coal Contributions

According to DirtyEnergyMoney.com, Joe Manchin (D-WV) received $345,171 between 2009 and 10 from fossil fuel companies, with 81% coming from coal and energy companies and 19% from oil companies.^[2]

In October 2010, the New York Times reported that the coal industry, facing a host of new EPA health and safety regulations, is spending millions of dollars in lobbying and campaign donations for the November 2 election to influence the makeup of the next Congress in hopes of derailing what one industry official called an Obama administration “regulatory jihad.” The article found that political spending by the coal industry is on track to exceed that of the 2008 cycle: As of the beginning of October 2010, coal mining companies had collectively contributed nearly $3 million to federal candidates, with three-quarters of the money going to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), a nonpartisan group that tracks campaign spending. Among the largest recipients of coal money are Republican and Democratic members who have sponsored or voted for measures to block new EPA regulations on climate change.

Two Senate candidates, Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, and Gov. Manchin of West Virginia, have received sizable industry donations. The political action committee of Representative John Boehner of Ohio, received more than $300,000 from mining interests, most of it from coal companies. The industry is counting on Boehner to reverse the current Democratic leadership’s refusal to allow a vote on the measure blocking EPA greenhouse gas regulation.^[3]

Coal and Manchin

September 2010: West Virginia Gov. Manchin sues federal government over mountaintop removal regulations

On September 30, 2010, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin announced the state is suing the federal government over "strict mountaintop removal coal mining controls" put into place in 2009, saying the regulations are hurting the state's economy. The suit is against the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. In a statement, the EPA said it would fight the suit and claimed West Virginia hasn't done enough to balance the ecological and economical concerns over mining. Manchin is in a tight race against Republican John Raese, who has accused the governor of not being a strong enough backer of the coal industry.^[4]

Gov. Manchin alleged that no specific law or government regulation has kept the permits from passing, only a political policy agenda specifically coming from the executive branch of government. The governor argued that certain federal government entities including the EPA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of the Interior delayed the issuance of 23 pending coal mining permits in West Virginia with only 2 being approved since 2009.^[5]

October 2010: Republican ad against Manchin pulled

In October 2010, a GOP committee pulled a television ad from broadcast after reports that men featured in the ad – who were supposed to be “Regular Joes’’ in West Virginia – were actors in Pittsburgh. The ad characterized West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin as a rubber stamp for the Obama Administration. But the men in the ad, shown talking to each other in a diner, were actors who had responded to a casting call seeking people with a “'Hicky' Blue Collar look,” Politico reported. The ad was shot in Philadelphia. The ad was paid for by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, but the casting call was written by a talent agency. Opponent John Raese’s campaign distanced itself from the ad, saying that no one in the campaign had anything to do with it and that the bigger issue is that voters don’t want their representatives voting lockstep with the White House.^[6]

Manchin protested by Tea Party as not pro-coal enough

On October 24, 2010, Gov. Joe Manchin went to a "Friends of Coal" rally in Logan, WV, where he was greeted by protesters from the local tea party -- the West Virginia Coalfield Tea Party Patriots. They said opponent John Raese, a business mogul and three-time failed candidate in statewide races, was the real friend of coal and waved signs with slogans such as "Obama says vote Democrat," "Obama, One Big Ass Mistake America," and "Kill Liberalism." Shaun Adkins, a lumber yard manager and founder of the local tea party chapter, said Manchin could not be trusted to support the coal industry in Washington.^[7]

The protests came despite the fact that Manchin has sued the U.S. EPA over new regulations on mountaintop removal coal mining, and his campaign is running an advertisement opposing the cap-and-trade bill the House passed last year, the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill. Manchin has the endorsement of the West Virginia Coal Association and the United Mine Workers of America in the race to complete the term of the late Sen. Robert Byrd (D). But Raese has been campaigning saying the governor will be a "rubber stamp" for the Obama administration's attempts to regulate the industry's mining and carbon dioxide emissions.^[7]

Manchin appointed to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee

In January 2011, the Senate committee with primary jurisdiction for U.S. energy policy - the Energy and Natural Resources Committee - added Joe Manchin to the panel. Led by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., the committee plans to draft legislation that sets guidelines for how much electricity comes from sources such as coal, natural gas, and renewable energy. Manchin won his seat after using climate-change legislation for target practice in a 2010 ad.^[8]

Financial ties to coal company

On his financial disclosures for 2009 and 2010, Manchin reported significant earnings from Enersystems Inc., a coal brokerage that he helped run. In the 19 months before winning his Senate seat, Manchin reported operating income of $1,363,916 from Enersystems. His next disclosure showed $417,255 in Enersystems income. Public records and media reports show that Manchin handed day-to-day control of Enersystems to his son after being elected West Virginia secretary of State in 2000 and moved his company holdings into a blind trust between 2005 and 2010, while he served as governor.^[9]

Web: http://manchin.senate.gov

Articles and resources

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Joe Manchin III profile, The Washington Post, accessed January 2011.
↑ Brendan DeMelle, "Coal Money And Violent Rhetoric Hold Appalachia Captive to Dirty Energy" HuffPo, Jan. 21, 2011.
↑ John Broeder, "Coal Industry Spending to Sway Next Congress" NY Times, Oct. 29, 2010.
↑ Christopher Weber, "West Virginia Sues Federal Government Over Mining Restrictions" Politics Daily, October 6, 2010.
↑ "W. Virginia Suing EPA Over Delayed Coal Mine Permits" Paul Darin, The Epoch Times, October 11, 2010.
↑ "GOP Ad Pulled After Casting Controversy" WSJ, Oct. 8, 2010.
↑ ^7.0 ^7.1 "W.Va. Tea Party Questions Democrat's Coal Credentials After Industry Rally" NY Times, Oct. 25, 2010.
↑ "Manchin on energy panel" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.com, January 30, 2011.
↑ "Sen. Manchin Maintains Lucrative Ties to Family-Owned Coal Company" NY Times, July 26, 2011.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Joe_Manchin

Manchin (West Virginia) Appeared in campaign ad firing a rifle at Obama's climate legislation. In office barely a year, has accepted $600,000 from coal interests - and voted for a GOP measure to permanently bar the EPA from regulating big carbon polluters. Key quote: "The EPA's overreach is destroying jobs in my state and all over the country, and it must be stopped."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-enablers-democrats-on-board-with-the-party-of-the-rich-20111109#ixzz1hgNIxq9d

Coal Country premeired on The Discovery Network in the fall of 2009

Billionaire Jim Justice vows to allow water taken from Greenbriar Golf Resort, and food from their garden… if someone from the government would only come to pick it up.

I wanted to write in to this blog to tell about how billionaire Jim Justice is seen here telling everyone how lucky the locals are near the Greenbriar Golf resort, as utilities were restored quickly. And how his resort has plenty of water to give to the disaster efforts as well as food from their Greenbriar Garden. The only problem was that he needed the government to send trucks and make it happen. Let me ask you… what would Ross Perot do? Organize a rescue mission maybe?

Now I don’t know if you might feel the same way I do, but given that people and children are starving without water in 100+ degree heat, if I had a billion dollars at my disposal, I’d probably have more to say about what I was personally going to do to help my home state of West Virginia. But, hey… golf has to go on no matter what. Right?

By the way: More on the PGA classic party going on in the midst of a food and water and gas shortage…: “People need to know the real story behind Jim Justice. Jim Justice and his buddyJoe Manchinworked out a deal so Jim Justice could buy the Greenbrier resort for a bargain price. Part of the deal involved a union strike when Governor Manchin had responsibility to respond to the demands of the striking workers. Manchin allowed the value of the resort to deteriorate so Justice could buy it at a bargain price. Justice sold his Bluestone coal company to the Russians around the same time. Now Jim Justice is hiding as a criminal coal operator with close ties to Don Blankenship as he puts on a show for the world at his Greenbrier Glassic PGA Tour Golf event.”

Manchin, J

the truth about Joe Biden's 'Manchin problem'

A bad Democratic senator is a whole lot better than a Republican one’: If Joe Manchin leaves the Senate, his GOP successor will be even worse

Bio

2008 elections

2010 elections

Money in politics

Coal Contributions

Coal and Manchin

September 2010: West Virginia Gov. Manchin sues federal government over mountaintop removal regulations

October 2010: Republican ad against Manchin pulled

Manchin protested by Tea Party as not pro-coal enough

Manchin appointed to Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee

Financial ties to coal company

Articles and resources

Related SourceWatch articles

References

Billionaire Jim Justice vows to allow water taken from Greenbriar Golf Resort, and food from their garden… if someone from the government would only come to pick it up.