Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator, is looking at a climate and energy package that can win the support of enough senators from Republicans to skirt the budget reconciliation method, which has held billions of dollars in partisan spending on related priorities.
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A bipartisan energy package can undercut the broader agenda of the Democrats but still give President Biden an issue voters do care about.
As per Sam Runyon, his spokeswoman, Manchin met other senators on Monday to assess the bipartisan interest in a path that addresses the nation’s energy and climate security needs.
According to Bloomberg News, Manchin told reporters that one common ground for reforms related to the gas and oil leasing process. The Biden administration has looked at various ways to increase domestic oil production and called upon Congress to make oil drillers who do not use gas leases pay penalties.
Manchin wants to have a fair leasing program that works and also wants Congress to look at increasing domestic production of short-term energy and provide incentives for long-term climate-related projects.
In December, Manchin had stalled the Build Back Better Act, saying that he would not support the $550 billion spending on climate and energy. This could now be revived as he talks about a reconciliation package that would include energy, drugs pricing, tax, and deficit reduction.
In addition to reforms, the potential package could also include aid to domestic pipelines, revisions to policies related to federal land, efforts to boost LNG production at home and abroad, and critical minerals, as per persons familiar with the developments.
The new changes could be bundled with hundreds of billions of dollars toward tax credits for solar and wind power, biofuels, nuclear plants, and advanced energy production sought by the White House and Democrats and included in the earlier drafts of the build black better spending bill.
Runyon did not immediately respond to the request for comment on the deal.
The move could be long drawn as efforts to sidestep the budget reconciliation procedure that requires 60 votes to pass through from the support of at least ten republicans and at the same time having the support of Democrats in the House.
The bipartisan deal will also provide a way forward for other priorities in the energy sector that Manchin had called for recently, including the mountain valley pipeline of Equitrans Midstream Corp., whose construction was stopped by a Federal court in the home state after it crossed the national forest.
Last Month Manchin had called on the administration with several energy requests that included the gas and oil production on state and private lands and a new five-year oil and gas leasing plan for the Gulf of Mexico.
