Congressional Progressives, Climate Activists Rally Against Manchin's 'Dirty Deal'

Progressive U.S. lawmakers joined climate activists for a Tuesday rally in Washington, D.C. to oppose to Sen. Joe Manchin's proposed industry-friendly fossil fuel permitting modifications, the so-called "dirty side deal" the West Virginia Democrat and his party's leaders want to include in the next military spending bill.

"I refuse to allow our residents in frontline communities to continue to be sacrificed for the fossil fuel industry's endless greed."

The Washington Postreported Monday that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has discussed attaching a version of Manchin's bill to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) with House Armed Services Committee Chair Adam Smith (D-Wash.), a move also supported by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and President Joe Biden.

Democratic leaders promised Manchin--who chairs the Senate Energy Committee and has made millions of dollars from his family's coal business--to hold a vote on the permitting proposal in return for his support for the Inflation Reduction Act., the landmark bill signed by Biden in August that authorizes hundreds of billions of dollars in climate spending.

"You're standing up against the fossil fuel industry, you're standing up for democracy, and as I have said, this will be a slap in the face of young voters and climate activists around the country if they force this deal through Congress," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told participants in Tuesday's rally. "We need to be a loud 'no.'"

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who also spoke at the rally, tweeted ahead of the event: "I strongly oppose attaching Manchin's #DirtyDeal to the NDAA. This would gut bedrock environmental regulations and fast-track fossil fuel projects. I refuse to allow our residents in frontline communities to continue to be sacrificed for the fossil fuel industry's endless greed."

"Dem leaders talk putting people before politics, but we must put people before polluter profits," she continued. "As if spending $847 billion on the military-industrial complex wasn't bad enough, now they want to add sacrificing frontline communities for polluter profits to the package? I'm voting against any rule that includes the dirty deal and hope colleagues will join me."

Other progressive opponents of Manchin's proposal took to Twitter to condemn the measure.

"We can advance permitting for clean energy without taking a hatchet to environmental protections for frontline communities. This is not what Rep. McEachin would have wanted," House Natural Resources Chair Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) tweeted, a reference to Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), who died last week at age 61. "I will vote against the NDAA rule if we continue with this fossil fuel giveaway."

Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia (D-Ill.) said on Monday that "Manchin's #DirtyDeal guts environmental protections and fast-tracks fossil fuel projects."

"We defeated the dirty deal once and it's time to do it again," Garcia added. "I'll oppose a rule that attaches this dirty deal to the NDAA."

On Tuesday, the leaders of nearly two dozen green groups sent a letter to Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer calling on them "to do what is right and pull Manchin's dirty side deal from the NDAA."

"This deal prioritizes the interests of the fossil fuel industry at the expense of the environment and health of frontline communities, which are disproportionately Black, Indigenous, communities of color, and low-wealth communities--a move that is not in line with President Biden's commitments to climate and environmental justice," the letter states.

Tuesday's letter follows a similar message sent Monday by more than 750 advocacy groups to Schumer and Pelosi urging them to "stand with the communities who continue to bear the brunt of harm from fossil fuels" and act in ways "to prevent wholesale climate disaster" by rejecting "this fossil fuel handout and side-deal with one single senator."