News broke last night that Senator Joe Manchin has effectively terminated the possibility of Congress passing a budget reconciliation bill that includes any action on climate and clean energy.

In response, Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter issued the following statement:

“With coal baron Joe Manchin’s despicable but unsurprising decision to prevent even meager action from Congress on climate and clean energy, the urgent need for President Biden to step up and act decisively has risen to a crisis pitch. Since the Senate won’t act, Biden must take matters into his own hands by declaring a climate emergency and immediately moving to halt new drilling and fracking on federal lands and waters, and denying the approval of new fossil fuel pipelines and infrastructure projects. Biden has the power to do all this now, and for the sake of a livable future, he must.

“If there is a silver lining to the death of any climate deal in the budget reconciliation package, it’s that the billions of dollars in proposed spending on harmful false solutions like carbon capture and storage will not come to fruition – at least for now. These sorts of schemes, perpetuated by the fossil fuel industry and unsurprisingly supported by Senator Manchin, serve only to extend a taxpayer-funded lifeline to polluting, climate-killing coal, oil and gas operations.”

Contact: Seth Gladstone – [email protected]