The CLEAN bill, while having the excellent things below, has
“gas plants generating clean energy credits for the 2020s, then in the 2030s declining slightly from every single natural gas plants to a quarter to a third of the gas fleet. While biomass and nuclear are baked into something like this, gas needn’t be…”

Progressives Warn House Climate Bill Falls Short of Needed Climate Action, By Brett Wilkins, in Common Dreams, Mar. 03, 2021

Protesters are seen during a demonstration in front of the White House in Washington, DC on June 1, 2017. Paul J. Richards / AFP / Getty Images

While some mainstream environmental organizations welcomed Tuesday’s introduction of the CLEAN Future Act in the House of Representatives, progressive green groups warned that the bill falls far short of what’s needed to meaningfully tackle the climate crisis—an existential threat they say calls for bolder action like the Green New Deal. The latest version of the CLEAN Future Act—which aims to achieve U.S. carbon neutrality by the year 2050 —was introduced by Democratic Reps. Frank Pallone (N.J.), Bobby Rush (Ill.), and Paul Tonko (N.Y.). The bill sets an interim target of reducing pollution by 50% from 2005 levels no later than 2030.

In a statement, Pallone, who is chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said that “the climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges of our lifetime, but it also presents one of the greatest opportunities to empower American workers with new, good paying jobs and return our economy to a position of strength after a long, dark year of historic job losses and pain.”

“Today’s introduction of the CLEAN Future Act promises that we will not stand idly by as the rest of the world transitions to clean economies and our workers get left behind,” added Pallone, “and that we will not watch from the sidelines as the climate crisis wreaks havoc on Americans’ health and homes.”

But while numerous people hailed the bill—with Earthjustice offering “applause” and NRDC calling it “urgently needed”—more critical voices from groups like Friends of the Earth and Food & Water Watch said the legislation is fundamentally and dangerously lacking.

Lukas Ross, program manager at Friends of the Earth, called the bill’s introduction “a monumental failure of climate leadership.”

“Chairman Pallone had over a year to remove fossil fuels from the CLEAN Future Act and didn’t bother to reconsider,” Ross said in a statement, referring to the bill’s previous iteration. “A clean energy standard that qualifies fracked gas is a joke. We need real solutions like solar and storage, not a dirty lifeline for gas, nukes, and biomass.”

Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Hill that while the new bill “improves on last year’s abysmal proposal,” the nation must “slash emissions 70% in 10 years, and we need firm cuts in greenhouse gases right now, not just gimmicky incentives, or future generations will suffer from our inaction today.”

Mitch Jones, policy director at Food & Water Watch, said in a statement that “Democrats should be making a big, bold push on climate—and the CLEAN Future Act is simply not strong enough.” Jones continued:

The bill’s clean energy standard includes provisions that essentially greenwash dirty energy sources—including rebranding fracked gas as ‘clean’ by pairing it with unproven, non-existent carbon capture methods. It also relies on a dubious emissions trading scheme to achieve its goals, which serves fossil fuel industry interests while pretending to curb climate pollution. The bill also promotes factory farm biogas as a clean energy source.

“While this bill has been marginally improved, it fails to grasp the fundamental truth of fighting climate change: We must stop extracting and burning fossil fuels as soon as possible,” stressed Jones. “We should not waste time creating credit schemes and offsets markets, or prop up fossil fuels with carbon capture fantasies.”

“A bold climate plan must call for a ban on fracking and all new fossil fuel infrastructure,” he added, “and a swift and just transition to 100% clean, renewable energy across all sectors of the economy. The CLEAN Future Act may have been revised since last year, but it’s still a Green New Dud.”

Reposted with permission from Common Dreams.

See Comprehensive Building Blocks for a Just and Regenerative 100% Policy (written by BIPOC-Frontline policy experts).

Here’s what the Hill shares is in the Clean Futures Act:

$2.5 billion annually to transition the country’s school bus fleet to zero-emission vehicles.
US interim target of reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to no more than half of what they were in 2005 by 2030, using a
Clean electricity standard, under which power retailers would need to provide 80% of their electricity from clean sources by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035.
Set energy efficiency targets and standards for buildings and seek to provide more funding for energy efficiency in schools, homes, nonprofits and infrastructure.
Prevent air pollution permits from being issued or renewed in areas that already face disparate pollution impacts and
Create a new program to pay for the removal of lead service lines and replace them with iron and steel.
Create a program to give aid to local governments that lose revenue as a result of the net-zero transition.
Prevent hazardous waste sites from being impacted by floods and other possible impacts by climate change by setting a 10-year deadline to clean up sites with climate vulnerability.

Introduced by Pallone and Reps. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), sets an interim target of reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to no more than half of what they were in 2005 by 2030, using a clean electricity standard, under which power retailers would need to provide 80 percent of their electricity from clean sources by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035.

This lines up with President Biden’s stated goal of achieving a carbon-free power sector by 2035, and is 15 years more ambitious than the previous bill’s goal of a decarbonized power sector by 2050. For a period of time, fossil fuel producers would be able to earn partial credits under the standard by lowering their carbon intensity, but this would eventually be phased out. In the 2030s, individual power providers may be able to extend their compliance obligations one year at a time with permission from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) if they submit alternative payments.

The legislation also aims to tackle emissions from the transportation sector through measures including authorizing $500 million to deploy electric vehicle equipment such as charging stations and authorizing $2.5 billion annually to transition the country’s school bus fleet to zero-emission vehicles.

The bill would additionally set energy efficiency targets and standards for buildings and seek to provide more funding for energy efficiency in schools, homes, nonprofits and infrastructure.

The legislation, which would in total authorize $565 billion over 10 years, also has an overarching requirement that 40 percent of funds made available through it would benefit communities that have faced environmental inequality.

In addition, it would prevent air pollution permits from being issued or renewed in areas that already face disparate pollution impacts and would create a new program to pay for the removal of lead service lines and replace them with iron and steel.

It would also create a program to give aid to local governments that lose revenue as a result of the net-zero transition. The bill also aims to prevent hazardous waste sites from being impacted by floods and other possible impacts by climate change by setting a 10-year deadline to clean up sites with climate vulnerability.

On a press call, the lawmakers were asked why they opted for a clean electricity standard rather than other market mechanisms such as putting a price on carbon emissions.“It’s time to try something new,” Pallone responded, referencing failed proposals from the Clinton and Obama years.

Aiko Schaefer, 100% Network , aiko@100percentnetwork.org 206.941.4817 (cell)

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/541228-house-democrats-reintroduce-roadmap-to-carbon-neutrality-by-2050

House Democrats on Tuesday introduced a revamped version of a major bill aiming to get the country on the road to carbon neutrality by 2050.

“Today’s introduction of the CLEAN Future Act promises that we will not stand idly by as the rest of the world transitions to clean economies and our workers get left behind, and that we will not watch from the sidelines as the climate crisis wreaks havoc on Americans’ health and homes,” said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) in a statement.

The latest edition of the legislation, introduced by Pallone and Reps. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), also sets an interim target of reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to no more than half of what they were in 2005 by 2030.

One of the ways it plans to reach its goals is through a clean electricity standard, under which power retailers would need to provide 80 percent of their electricity from clean sources by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035.

For a period of time, fossil fuel producers would be able to earn partial credits under the standard by lowering their carbon intensity, but this would eventually be phased out.

In the 2030s, individual power providers may be able to extend their compliance obligations one year at a time with permission from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) if they submit alternative payments.

On a press call, the lawmakers were asked why they opted for a clean electricity standard rather than other market mechanisms such as putting a price on carbon emissions.

“It’s time to try something new,” Pallone responded, referencing failed proposals from the Clinton and Obama years.

“There’s also a lot of environmental justice concerns for allowing companies to pay to continue polluting,” he said.

The legislation also aims to tackle emissions from the transportation sector through measures including authorizing $500 million to deploy electric vehicle equipment such as charging stations and authorizing $2.5 billion annually to transition the country’s school bus fleet to zero-emission vehicles.

The bill would additionally set energy efficiency targets and standards for buildings and seek to provide more funding for energy efficiency in schools, homes, nonprofits and infrastructure.

The legislation, which would in total authorize $565 billion over 10 years, also has an overarching requirement that 40 percent of funds made available through it would benefit communities that have faced environmental inequality.

It would also create a program to give aid to local governments that lose revenue as a result of the net-zero transition.

The bill also aims to prevent hazardous waste sites from being impacted by floods and other possible impacts by climate change by setting a 10-year deadline to clean up sites with climate vulnerability.

The legislation has a good chance of passing the Democratically controlled House, but could face hurdles in the 50-50 Senate, where it would have to contend with the filibuster.

At least one Democratic senator has expressed openness to evading the filibuster and passing a clean electricity standard through budget reconciliation, but Senate swing vote Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is skeptical of proposed clean electricity requirements.

Asked how to get the legislation across the finish line, and whether it could be done through budget reconciliation, Pallone said he’d prefer to use “regular order,” but added that he won’t “rule anything out.”

“I’m hoping that the Republicans will participate so we don’t have to go through reconciliation,” he said.

But three GOP members of the Energy and Commerce Committee issued a joint statement on Tuesday opposing the legislation.

“Just like President Joe Biden’s executive orders, this rush to green with one-size-fits all regulations will force California’s failed policies on the rest of the country,” said top panel Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), and GOP Reps. Fred Upton (Mich.) and David McKinley (W.Va.).

“We can pursue practical policies to innovate a cleaner energy future if we work together,” they added. “We urge the Majority to join us in a bipartisan way to unleash innovation, strengthen our supply chains, and capture all the advantages of our abundant resources, which include coal, hydropower, nuclear technologies, and clean natural gas.”

The legislation received praise from many environmentalists, but some argued that it still doesn’t go far enough.

“We need to slash emissions 70% in 10 years, and we need firm cuts in greenhouse gases right now, not just gimmicky incentives, or future generations will suffer from our inaction today,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement, though he added that the bill “improves on last year’s abysmal proposal.”

Manchin: ‘There’s a moment here’ for bipartisanship, purpose

By Joe Severino Staff writer, Feb 27, 2021, The Charleston WV Gazette-Mail

Four decades later, Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush broke the Democratic stronghold in West Virginia, pivotal in his 271-266 Electoral College victory. Had Democrat Al Gore captured West Virginia and its five electoral votes it wouldn’t have mattered whether those hanging chads gave him Florida. He would have been president.

From a tiny, struggling state that sometimes looms large, Manchin is the man with the keys. President Joe Biden and other powerful Democrats need West Virginia’s 73-year-old senator to swing the split upper chamber their way. But Manchin votes as he marches, to his own beat.

He describes not a moment of power but one of opportunity. The country is plagued by pain. The number of Americans killed by COVID-19 roughly matches the number killed in World War II, Korea and Vietnam combined. Drastic disparities and divisions are there for all to see, he said. If the 117th Congress does not do its job, this moment in history will be missed, and the country will continue its never-ending nightmare.

“That’s the window. That’s it. Two years. That’s all we got,” he said.

Biden is the right man at the right time to bring the country together, Manchin said. Nonetheless, the senator is the constant thorn in the administration’s side. That, he said, is about bipartisanship, a trait he holds close.

He objects to his fellow Democrats’ strategy of using its majority in both chambers and the presidency to pass priorities through budget reconciliation, which takes only a simple majority.

The path forward should be together, Manchin said, with members of Congress pledging to serve those most ignored. But, he said, that message is not getting through.

“There’s a moment here. I try to explain it to them and you get all this bull — about power and this and that,” he said. “I have watched power destroy people, good people, because they abused it.”

Power does not concern him, Manchin said. But for the next two years he’ll have a great deal of it.

“If you realize the moment that you’re in — can I do some good with this? Can I use it to the best advantage to help people understand what rural America, what Appalachia is like, why West Virginians have felt like they’ve been left behind?”

“If I can use it for that, then, hell yeah I’m going to use it.”

‘Make it happen’

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., darted after Manchin and a small group of reporters outside the Capitol following a floor vote. Booker wanted to know why everyone was so suddenly concerned about West Virginia. Five years ago, Booker was the senator of the hour. His rousing speech in Philadelphia at the Democratic National Convention stirred talk of a presidential run.

Now, Booker said of Manchin, “I stand in his shadow. I used to be a star around here.”

A former Stanford University tight end, Booker said he and Manchin, an ex-quarterback, make a great team. Manchin described Booker as one of the greatest friends to be found in the Senate.

Manchin counts a pair of Republican women, Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, among his closest allies on Capitol Hill. He said their commitment to bipartisanship rivals his. The three have navigated legislative minefields sticking and working together.

That practice drew the ire of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in the fall when Manchin endorsed Collins over her Democratic opponent. Collins sees Manchin’s name pop up on her caller ID at 7:15 nearly every morning. Manchin’s name is on everyone’s mind at the moment.

“In a 50-50 Senate, there is no more powerful senator than Joe Manchin,” Collins said, “and his role has never been more important than it is right now.”

His buddy-buddy style rankles some of his colleagues. He said many of them run to their corners when the going gets tough.

“You have to work at this. You have to continuously be conscious of — these are human beings, these are real people — and they should be your friends,” Manchin said. “We might disagree, but it doesn’t mean we’re enemies, and if we disagree it’s because I don’t understand your position well enough. So let’s sit down.”

Personal connection and hard work are essential ingredients, Manchin said. That was evident during a late night in the Capitol just before Christmas, when a bipartisan group of eight centrist senators, over a jar of Manchin’s moonshine, hashed out the framework for a compromised COVID-19 relief bill that had been stalled for months.

“You just gotta make it happen,” Manchin said.

What we’ve given

Few places more vividly display America’s problems than does West Virginia.

Resources steadily have been drained and its people have been an afterthought since the state was born out of the Civil War, Manchin said, pledging its allegiance to the Union in June 1863 and breaking off ties to the slave state of Virginia.

Wealthy corporation owners from the northeast flocked to the hills of West Virginia, discovering its vast reserves of natural resources. The story has followed the same script since.

Companies buy rural land here, tap laborers to work dangerous jobs, pay them well for a generation or two and then skip town. The cycle repeated endlessly, until the jobs seemed to leave for good.

Painkillers replaced them. Like much of Appalachia, West Virginia was flooded with millions of highly-addictive pain pills, at first to mitigate chronic health conditions for miners discarded by employers. Later, the pills fueled corporate greed and a drug epidemic still raging in the state with the highest rate of fatal overdoses in the country.

The gilded homes and rich neighborhoods that line wealthy northeastern communities, from which the Kennedy and other families hailed, are products of the wealth and resources built off the backs of West Virginians. These are the sins of the country’s past evident today, Manchin said.

“We never had that wealth in our state.”

Today, the only billionaire in West Virginia is its two-term governor, Jim Justice — a coal company owner and son of a coal company owner.

Manchin said by the time West Virginia started taxing its natural resources — coal, oil, gas, timber, limestone and more — it was too late.

In 1953, progressive Gov. William Casey Marland was the first to try and pass a severance tax on these resources. That drew extreme opposition from coal companies, newspaper editorial boards and politicians bankrolled by the corporations.

Marland’s plan was so soundly defeated it later was dubbed “Governor Marland’s Political Suicide.” Three decades passed before a severance tax was considered again.

In the mid 1940s, more than 115,000 workers were needed to mine coal. By the time Kennedy arrived to campaign in West Virginia in 1960, mining jobs had dropped to 43,000. In 2019, the industry employed fewer than 15,000 people here.

The state remains a harsh reminder of what happens when the country forgets its most vulnerable.

“So how do you make up for the sins of the past?” Manchin said. “You just don’t repeat them.”

What we deserve, and how to get there

How to get immediate relief to struggling Americans has been the most pressing question for Manchin since Jan. 5.

Personal relief checks, unemployment, student debt and rent cancellation and the minimum wage have been common topics floated by Capitol reporters, while emotional pleas for help are heard in West Virginia state and nationwide.

The Rev. William Barber II, co-chairman of the Poor People’s Campaign, an organization that has put shoes to pavement in Charleston, has pressured Manchin in his own backyard to support a $15 per hour minimum wage.

Barber and other national figures have targeted Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., for being holdouts on Biden’s call for the wage hike to be included in the next COVID-19 relief bill. Manchin and Sinema are the most moderate Democrats in the Senate. Both have opposed the wage increase.

In a private meeting Feb. 18 with Barber and the Poor People’s Campaign, Manchin reiterated his support for a more moderate wage increase, from the current $7.25 to $11 an hour.

“We’re not interested in compromise,” Barber said afterward. “The $15 is a compromise.”

For an almost entirely rural state, Manchin said, that won’t work. His concerns mirror those cited by others pointing to a report produced by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which found that a phase-in of a $15 minimum wage by 2025 would lift some 900,000 people from poverty but put 1.4 million out of work.

At $11 an hour, a worker would bring in $22,000 a year, just above the federal government’s poverty threshold for a family of three. Manchin favors phasing in that wage starting at the end of next year until 2024. After that, the minimum wage would be indexed, increasing with inflation rather than by legislation.

National debt is another worry of Manchin’s. Every morning an aide texts Manchin how much the national debt has grown since the previous morning. “Thanks,” he replies.

Democrats have accused Republicans over the years of only making the debt an issue in attempts to torpedo Democratic presidencies and priorities. But Manchin is a Democrat, and he’s making it an issue.

Trillions of dollars have flowed into the economy, keeping it in shape to come roaring back when the pandemic is over, Manchin said, but the debt swelled to its highest level since World War II by the time former President Donald Trump left office.

Congress must meet the moment, Manchin said. Members must support major bipartisan infrastructure spending immediately to emerge from the pandemic with opportunities for regional economic development, or these communities will again be left behind.

Spending must be painstakingly targeted to those in need, or communities and the country might never rebound, Manchin said.

He cites the Rural Electrification Act passed by Congress in 1936. Private companies and others objected to spending $112 million amid the Depression on President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal priority to wire America’s most remote areas to an electrical power grid. But the program closed drastic disparities between cities and rural areas and positioned rural America for a 20th century economy.

“They said, ‘My God, only five people live up in this holler. There’s only 10 people over in this area,’” Manchin said.

Broadband warrants FDR-style intervention without which education, employment, health, income and opportunity disparities will widen, Manchin said. Congress and the Federal Communications Commission have historically approached the issue wrong way, he said.

The plan? Nonprofit cooperatives, Manchin said, similar to the teams of farmers in rural America that purchased subsidized electrical equipment from private companies, built towers and lines themselves, using local unemployed workers.

Subsidizing and relying on bankrupt private internet companies to connect rural communities is dancing around the problem, he said. Constructing one network tower in West Virginia costs four times more than what it would take in Kansas.

“You can’t force them to go out and lose money unless you’re willing to subsidize. But you can make sure they sell wholesale connectivity into a co-op and let a co-op just go out and cover costs. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper and we can do it. There’s ways to do it, damn it, and we just got to be committed,” Manchin said.

Hardy County, in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, has “the most effective and efficient co-op I’ve ever seen” in its local nonprofit internet cooperative, Manchin said. It has allowed online companies to relocate to the tiny towns just a two-hour drive from Washington, D.C. Without the cooperative, these communities would be without internet access.

“It wasn’t profit-motivated. It was people that lived in these rural communities that knew that they had to collect and deliver,” Manchin said. “And if they could do it in the ‘30s, and we can’t do it in the 21st century, shame on us.”

The disconnect

Federal money is not a panacea for what ails West Virginia.

Kennedy vowed never to forget West Virginia. He poured federal money into the state until the day he was assassinated. The federal government invested heavily in areas outside of coal and gas, diversifying the state’s economy with manufacturing, recreation, arts and culture and public works jobs. After Kennedy, longtime former Sen. Robert C. Byrd kept open the faucet of federal funding into the state through his position as a Senate Appropriations chairman.

But the state’s economy never reached the mountaintop. Manchin said it’s been evident throughout the state’s history, that on the rare occasions when piles of federal money are on the table for West Virginia, the money is eaten by the system and rarely makes it to the people.

The senator and others have criticized Justice for sitting on $1.25 billion in federal coronavirus relief money allocated to the state in April. Justice has spent about half the pot in 10 months. During his campaign for reelection last fall and since, he has used much of the money backfilling the state’s unemployment trust fund in a bid to avoid tax increases or spending cuts.

Some money went to road repairs Justice said would bolster ambulance access, except the roads were not located near hospitals. He also ponied up for relief money for delinquent utility bills from the summer. The program was announced just two weeks before Election Day, allowing the governor to send a letter with his name stretched across the top to nearly 133,000 West Virginia households.

Money intended for broadband went to new school textbooks, upgrades to public safety radio and a resurfaced wilderness trail.

Those who objected, Manchin said, could turn only to Justice, leaving many shouting into the void. Some Democrats labeled him “King Jim.”

“He called a national emergency and he had total control, and [West Virginians] had to come beg him, I need this or I need this or I need this,” Manchin said.

Congress must ensure next time the money gets to the people, Manchin said.

Many rural West Virginia schools are connected to family health clinics, making healthcare more accessible for low-income families. Manchin said for community lifelines like these, which Justice has not supported during the pandemic, there must be more local control.

“You better make sure that school has the ability to attract what resources it needs to provide” services, Manchin said. “Let the school districts pull down what’s needed,” Manchin said.

‘Spear catcher’

For the next two years, Manchin said, he will be the “spear catcher.” From the far-left to the far-right and in the middle, Manchin said, he expects the hits to come from every angle, on every subject, every day.

And every spear will be taken in the name of bipartisanship, he said. The Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol changed him, Manchin said. It showed a divided country that needs made whole again.

That Trump could contend let alone win is evidence Democrats should not ram through their priorities, he said.

Liberal detractors say Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., did not play fair. But Manchin contends former Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., blew up the Senate first in 2013 by using the nuclear option to confirm presidential nominations. Reid said it was time for the Senate to evolve beyond parliamentary roadblocks.

“The American people believe the Senate is broken, and I believe the American people are right,” Reid said in 2013.

Manchin said he remains a core believer in the minority representation the Senate body was designed for. He said he’ll protect the legacy of Byrd, the historian who fought to preserve Senate rules and forced the body to work together. Manchin now occupies Byrd’s seat.

An old Byrd rule came in the nick of time for Manchin in the form of the Senate Parliamentarian, a relatively obscure public position, who ruled Thursday that Democrats could not address the minimum wage increase through budget reconciliation.

Manchin’s idea for what could be achieved by this Congress happened early Tuesday morning. Now chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Manchin sat directly across the hearing room from Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., who was there for questioning on her nomination for secretary of the Interior.

Haaland, seeking to be the first Native American Cabinet member, would serve in a position directly overseeing the federal government’s energy activity on federal and Indian lands. Haaland, a staunch opponent of drilling and building pipelines on these lands, is the exact official energy corporations fear.

Seated left of Haaland on Tuesday was Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, who at 87 is the oldest and longest-serving member of Congress. For decades he’s backed drilling, the oil industry and remains one of the most conservative members.

Young vouched for Haaland, and told senators to confirm her. Haaland was ranked the most bipartisan House freshman in 2019, with 13 of her 27 proposed bills and resolutions having a Republican cosponsor.

Having Young speak so confidently of Haaland’s ability to set aside differences and work together and watching her face hours of tough questioning without wavering, Manchin announced Wednesday night he would vote to confirm Haaland.

“That spoke volumes of who she is,” Manchin said.

There are plenty of opportunities in the next two years for crucial bipartisan legislation to flourish, Manchin said. His firearm background check bill, crafted with Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., failed in 2013 but has become the model for proposed gun safety legislation in the years since.

Manchin supports a reformed immigration system that allows people who have been in the United States illegally and have stayed out of trouble to have a path to citizenship. He backs recruiting professionals from other countries to West Virginia, similar to how the state has historically bolstered its fragile healthcare industry.

“We wouldn’t have all the good doctors we have in our state if it hadn’t been for immigration. We went out and recruited them, and we need to do that [now] also,” he said.

Manchin also supports the path to citizenship for the nearly 670,000 so-called Dreamers — people who were brought into America illegally as children, but were protected from deportation by the Obama-era Dream Act program. The Trump administration was branded immoral for the move to rescind the program, but the Supreme Court held the policy in place in a June 2020 ruling.

“This is the only home they know,” Manchin said.

Whatever the issue over the next two years, a Capitol reporter is going to find Manchin and ask him about it. Whether that is pure coincidence or this is the culmination of Manchin’s decades-long rise from the lower levels of state government to the Senate’s most crucial swing vote — well, none of that really matters now.

What matters is rebuilding a battered country and a struggling state, Manchin said. For that to happen, some of his 534 colleagues in the Capitol are going to have to join forces with him.

“If you can’t change your mind,” he said, “you can’t change anything.”

Reach Joe Severino at joe.severino@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4814 or follow @jj_severino on Twitter.