While the news has been inundated with Kyle Rittenhouse trial reactions and the mass murder that took place in Waukesha, Joe Biden’s agenda continues to languish.
After Nancy Pelosi forced through the “Build Back Better” bill last week, the administration is no closer to seeing it come to fruition in the Senate. Joe Manchin said that many things in the House’s version represented a redline. These included climate provisions and federal funding of abortions.
Manchin has been making noises over the recent gas-price crises, but he appears to have overlooked a key piece of leverage. This statement was made by the West Virginia senator yesterday.
“Today’s release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an important policy Band-Aid for rising gas prices but does not solve for the self-inflicted wound that shortsighted energy policy is having on our nation. With an energy transition underway across the country, it is critical that Washington does not jeopardize America’s energy security in the near term and leave consumers vulnerable to rising prices. Historic inflation taxes and the lack of a comprehensive all-of-the-above energy policy pose a clear and present threat to American’s economic and energy security that can no longer be ignored.
Continue to urge President Biden that he increase domestic energy production and reverse his decision to permit the Keystone XL Pipeline to be constructed. This would have allowed our country to receive up to 900,000. barrels per day of crude oil from Canada, our close ally. To be clear, this is about American energy independence and the fact that hard working Americans should not depend on foreign actors, like OPEC+, for our energy security and instead focus on the real challenges facing our country’s future.”
Manchin is already holding up Biden’s agenda, but in my opinion, this represents the perfect pressure point to force Biden’s hand. Why pass the “Build Back Better” act when you can extract a pound of flesh that will help working Americans in such a viable way? Manchin has already made the Keystone XL pipeline a big issue in the past and there’s no better way to make the president bend the knee than to insist that it be restarted along with a renewal of federal oil and gas leases.
Manchin’s decision is up to him. Manchin will do whatever it takes to win re-election or run for West Virginia governor, as is rumored. Of course, that also depends on whether he’s content to not pass anything. If he’s willing to kill the whole thing, then maybe he doesn’t even make the demand to restart Keystone XL in exchange for passage. But color me skeptical that Manchin is willing to let Biden’s agenda die completely. Manchin should in that instance ensure his constituents have relief and universal pre-K.
This gambit is still possible, but it could prove to be complex. He’d need a guarantee in blood from the White House that they wouldn’t just re-cancel the pipeline a few months from now. Manchin could threaten to caucus with the GOP in the event that the White House reneges on its agreement.
Manchin does have a winning move, but is he going to use it?
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