Hey John — We’ve emailed you a lot about Joe Manchin’s meddling on climate infrastructure progress. But now we’re seeing the clear conflicts of interest influencing his opposition to reducing carbon emissions.

It is well known that Joe Manchin has made his fortune in coal. Particularly through his family business, Enersystems Inc., which he founded. In 2020, Enersystems has reportedly paid Manchin $492,000, and his shares in the firm have an estimated $1 - $5 million value. In total, Joe Manchin has made $4.35 million from his coal shares since 2012.

Where’s that money coming from? Enersystems provides most of the waste coal burned at the West Virginia Grant Town power plant, which emits air pollution at a higher rate than any other plant in the state. On top of this plant’s impacts on the climate crisis, Grant Town customers are paying a premium for their utilities. That’s why shutting down plants like Grant Town was a key piece to Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, because it would be good for both the environment and West Virginians’ pocket books.

Time and again, Joe Manchin has cited the fact that his assets are in a blind trust as the reason he can be trusted to be impartial, while simultaneously killing portions of the Build Back Better Act that would have penalized highly-polluting coal plants. But a recent analysis of his financial disclosures proves that it’s simply not true. Documents filed by the Senator show his blind trust is too small to account for all of his reported earnings and blatantly doesn’t include Enersystems, which is listed separately.

While Congressional ethics rules find Manchin’s financial disclosures and role as Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee up to code, these filings bring into question whether Manchin killed aspects of the Build Back Better Act because they could cut into his coal-burning profit.

It’s hard to have a clearer conflict of interest than this.

John — We don’t like denigrating any Democratic senator. Because for all of his flaws, at least Senator Manchin has been open to at least considering the massive climate investments included in the Build Back Better Act, which is more than we can say than for any Republican member of Congress.

Will you take a moment to donate and let our SEEC members know you have their back as they fight to get this critical bill passed in the Senate?

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