‘We Will Vote This Dirty Deal Down,’ Tlaib Says of Manchin’s Oil-Friendly Side Agreement
With President Joe Biden set to sign the Inflation Reduction Act into law on Tuesday, progressive members of Congress are increasingly speaking out against a side agreement that Democratic leaders reached with Sen. Joe Manchin in order to secure final passage of the $740 billion climate, tax, and healthcare measure.
The side deal focuses primarily on permitting changes that would help fast-track fossil fuel infrastructure—including a long-delayed pipeline in Manchin’s home state of West Virginia—even as scientists say that meeting key emission-reduction targets requires a swift end to all new oil and gas development.
Because its provisions are outside the bounds of the budget reconciliation process, the permitting agreement must follow a legislative track separate from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which the Senate passed on August 7 and the House gave final approval on Friday.
The permitting legislation, a major boon to Manchin’s fossil fuel donors, would need 60 votes to pass the Senate, requiring some Republican support as well as unanimous backing from the Democratic caucus.
In a statement to The American Prospect on Tuesday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), said that “handshake deals made by others in closed rooms do not dictate how I vote, and we sure as hell don’t owe Joe Manchin anything now.”
“He and his fossil fuel donors already got far too much in the IRA,” Tlaib added.
Tlaib’s comments to the Prospect echo the sentiments she expressed in a statement shortly after final passage of the IRA last week.
“My yes vote today is not quiet acceptance of the Manchin poison pills,” said the Michigan Democrat. “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.”
Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, blasted the side deal and vowed to fight it following passage of the IRA, which Democrats and environmentalists have hailed as a historic climate action measure even as they acknowledge its serious flaws.
Progressive opposition to the permitting deal inside Congress is mounting as grassroots advocacy groups and frontline organizations ramp up their mobilizations against the agreement, warning it poses a severe threat to the climate and vulnerable communities.
Originally published at Commondreams.org.
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