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Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) on Monday will introduce a bill that would spend $8 billion to bring clean energy manufacturing and recycling to former fossil fuel sites and help transition workers to jobs in the clean energy sector.

The details: The bipartisan bill, which is co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, expands the advanced energy manufacturing tax credit (often referred to as 48c for its section of the tax code) to attract clean energy manufacturing and recycling companies to areas with high unemployment. The bill includes a special $4 billion carve-out for companies willing to set up operations in communities where coal mines or coal power plants have closed, according to a fact sheet released by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The bill would also allow heavy industry to use the credit to reduce their own emissions.

“The downturn of the coal industry has left many Americans without the good-paying jobs they once relied on and, more often than not, a lack of new opportunity," said Manchin, who chairs the Energy Committee, in a statement. "I believe that tax credits to help incentivize the transition to a cleaner energy future should be targeted to drive reinvestment in the communities who are the most impacted by that transition.

The politics: Drawing Republican support is likely to be crucial for the bill, and Daines' support could help its chance.

“This bipartisan bill will support jobs and increase investment in coal and other energy producing communities in Montana to ensure they continue playing a part in American energy production," Daines said.

The White House did not comment on the bill, but Stabenow said Biden backed the plan.
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The provisions of the bill could be beneficial in red states like Wyoming and West Virginia where coal plants have been retiring and coal mines reducing output, leading former workers to seek alternative employment opportunities. But some Republicans may be skeptical of the bill.

"I haven't seen pigs fly," Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) told POLITICO on Friday, ahead of the bill announcement. "If manufacturing wanted to go to McGowan County or to Clay County or other areas of West Virginia ... those manufacturers would already be there. There can be an incentive, but Joe [Manchin] needs to understand its not just tax incentives. It's the availability of materials. What about the workforce, is it available? I'm not going to suggest it's all wrong, it needs a much bigger picture."

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bfd
No Tit for Tat?

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RgrF

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bfd
No Tit for Tat?

You think LBJ wouldn't have twisted an arm here and come away with a min wage bill & $2,000 checks? As it stands with the recent pare-back in eligibility, people will come away remembering that more people got more $ from Trump/GOP than Biden/Dem.

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RgrF

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bfd
No Tit for Tat?

You think LBJ wouldn't have twisted an arm here and come away with a min wage bill & $2,000 checks? As it stands with the recent pare-back in eligibility, people will come away remembering that more people got more $ from Trump/GOP than Biden/Dem.

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Lemon Drop
The thing that West Virginians want and need most is clean-up of the old coal and chemical producing sites that are polluted, dangerous, and very ugly. WV is a gorgeous state that could thrive on tourism of those areas could be restored. Not to mention how that would improve quality of life for residents.

Decades of efforts to help our poorest state haven't gone all that well.

There are also people in small villages who want to do sustenance farming, build furniture and other crafts, and just live. We should help them too.

We all benefitted from that coal.

It's been our American way to expect working people to move to where the jobs are and leave their original places to rot. It'd be great for society in many ways if we stopped doing that so much.

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rjmacs

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Lemon Drop
The thing that West Virginians want and need most is clean-up of the old coal and chemical producing sites that are polluted, dangerous, and very ugly. WV is a gorgeous state that could thrive on tourism of those areas could be restored. Not to mention how that would improve quality of life for residents.

Decades of efforts to help our poorest state haven't gone all that well.

There are also people in small villages who want to do sustenance farming, build furniture and other crafts, and just live. We should help them too.

We all benefitted from that coal.

It's been our American way to expect working people to move to where the jobs are and leave their original places to rot. It'd be great for society in many ways if we stopped doing that so much.

There's often a conflation of what people want and what they need, and it's dangerous to skirt that line from an outside perspective.

West Virginia has extracted a lot of federal assistance over the years through the expert work of its senators to bring national dollars there. We do need to support local economies, but it's overly simplistic to say that we can tell them what's best for them, and that we will fund our priorities at the cost of their agency.

Before assuming that we know what's best for people in coal country, we (the Democratic party) needs to do a better job of understanding what these folks are dealing with, how they can imagine a way out, and help them do that. The people of WV powered the Tennessee Valley Authority, and brought electricity to millions through the burning of coal. We supported them then, and we need to support them as they develop an economic way out, not dictate how they should live now.

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rjmacs
You said "The thing that West Virginians want and need most is clean-up of the old coal and chemical producing sites that are polluted, dangerous, and very ugly."

I may agree with you, but have you gotten this info from West Virginians who are planning a new economy for their state?

Do they want to replace coal mining with "sustenance farming, build furniture and other crafts"?

What do the people of West Virginia want to redevelop their economy?

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Lemon Drop

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rjmacs
You said "The thing that West Virginians want and need most is clean-up of the old coal and chemical producing sites that are polluted, dangerous, and very ugly."

I may agree with you, but have you gotten this info from West Virginians who are planning a new economy for their state?

Do they want to replace coal mining with "sustenance farming, build furniture and other crafts"?

What do the people of West Virginia want to redevelop their economy?

Yes, what I wrote represents views of people from West Virginia. Did you think I just made that up?

Just read this today. Should have linked it, my mistake.

The Promises to Coal Country Are Familiar, but Can Biden Deliver? [nyti.ms]

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rjmacs

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Lemon Drop

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rjmacs
You said "The thing that West Virginians want and need most is clean-up of the old coal and chemical producing sites that are polluted, dangerous, and very ugly."

I may agree with you, but have you gotten this info from West Virginians who are planning a new economy for their state?

Do they want to replace coal mining with "sustenance farming, build furniture and other crafts"?

What do the people of West Virginia want to redevelop their economy?

Yes, what I wrote represents views of people from West Virginia. Did you think I just made that up?

Just read this today. Should have linked it, my mistake.

The Promises to Coal Country Are Familiar, but Can Biden Deliver? [nyti.ms]

Thanks for the link. In that article, I saw one person quoted as saying that "the administration should also prioritize the region’s cultural heritage, which includes subsistence farming, furniture-making and other skills handed down from the days of homesteaders."

Is one person the voice of authority from WV now?

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Lemon Drop

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rjmacs

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Lemon Drop

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rjmacs
You said "The thing that West Virginians want and need most is clean-up of the old coal and chemical producing sites that are polluted, dangerous, and very ugly."

I may agree with you, but have you gotten this info from West Virginians who are planning a new economy for their state?

Do they want to replace coal mining with "sustenance farming, build furniture and other crafts"?

What do the people of West Virginia want to redevelop their economy?

Yes, what I wrote represents views of people from West Virginia. Did you think I just made that up?

Just read this today. Should have linked it, my mistake.

The Promises to Coal Country Are Familiar, but Can Biden Deliver? [nyti.ms]

Thanks for the link. In that article, I saw one person quoted as saying that "the administration should also prioritize the region’s cultural heritage, which includes subsistence farming, furniture-making and other skills handed down from the days of homesteaders."

Is one person the voice of authority from WV now?

Is the point not that people in the state, like people everywhere, have diverse interests and skills to bring to the economy, and that decades of federal aid has often missed the mark?

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pdq

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RgrF

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bfd
No Tit for Tat?

You think LBJ wouldn't have twisted an arm here and come away with a min wage bill & $2,000 checks? As it stands with the recent pare-back in eligibility, people will come away remembering that more people got more $ from Trump/GOP than Biden/Dem.

In 1965-67, (Medicare, Medicaid, Great Society/etc) Johnson had a 295 to 140 majority in the House and a 68 to 32 majority in the Senate.

You don’t have to twist a lot of arms with those numbers.

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rjmacs

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Lemon Drop

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rjmacs

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Lemon Drop

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rjmacs
You said "The thing that West Virginians want and need most is clean-up of the old coal and chemical producing sites that are polluted, dangerous, and very ugly."

I may agree with you, but have you gotten this info from West Virginians who are planning a new economy for their state?

Do they want to replace coal mining with "sustenance farming, build furniture and other crafts"?

What do the people of West Virginia want to redevelop their economy?

Yes, what I wrote represents views of people from West Virginia. Did you think I just made that up?

Just read this today. Should have linked it, my mistake.

The Promises to Coal Country Are Familiar, but Can Biden Deliver? [nyti.ms]

Thanks for the link. In that article, I saw one person quoted as saying that "the administration should also prioritize the region’s cultural heritage, which includes subsistence farming, furniture-making and other skills handed down from the days of homesteaders."

Is one person the voice of authority from WV now?

Is the point not that people in the state, like people everywhere, have diverse interests and skills to bring to the economy, and that decades of federal aid has often missed the mark?

That's a reasonable point, of course. But, I think it's overly simplistic to say that a couple of interviewees from a NYT article better represent the needs and priorities of the people of WV than their elected representatives.

The work here is more complex than that. I've spent time in WV, and the communities there are incredibly diverse, both in their political orientations and their day to day needs. Asking what kind of economy should replace fossil fuel extraction is a very hard one, but one common thread is that the areas where coal is failing are very under-resourced. Federal aid isn't a one-step solution to the problem, but it will be necessary to improve people's lives and opportunities. Addressing centuries of entrenched racism is another problem entirely, but I hope it will be part of the federal project to renew the state's prospects.

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Lemon Drop
I also know West Virginia well. My college roomie was from Charleston, her Dad was an attorney who represented sick coal miners.

I would argue that they have been poorly represented by all levels of government over many decades. That's the point of the article I linked, the voices of the people are left out too often. Especially when there is a patronizing assumption that government must know better.

The rep quoted in the OP is a coal mine loving Trumpeteer.

In journalism it's normal to quote only a few people when making a larger point, and IMO the article did that nicely.