When Senator Joe Manchin thumped his Trump-backed opponent in the 2018 West Virginia senatorial election, it marked years of service to the state — someone who got out and pounded the pavement and listened to his neighbors and constituents. Is his present position on Build Back Better a reflection of that?
Senator Manchin and President Biden are similar: both have an uncanny ability to empathize. Manchin’s understanding of the state’s labor movement and coal miners, in particular, is a case in point: working men and women who are losing their jobs and fighting to keep promised health and pension benefits — something for which Manchin has fought hard. But labor leaders are now pleading with the senator to re-evaluate his opposition to the president’s Build Back Better plan.
“We urge Senator Manchin to revisit his opposition to this legislation and work with his colleagues to pass something that will help keep coal miners working, and have a meaningful impact on our members, their families, and their communities,” says United Mine Workers of America International President Cecil E. Roberts. Roberts, who sat down with this reporter after Manchin’s 2018 senatorial victory, called the two of them lifelong friends.
While there are just 10,000-13,000 working coal miners in West Virginia, tens of thousands are retired. And they have been at risk of losing their health and pension benefits because many of the coal companies that have employed them have gone bankrupt. Manchin worked with the mine association to preserve those promised benefits. And that loyalty runs deep.
But the Build Back Better model has several positions that make life better for miners, and they want Manchin to get on board. For starters, the bill would give funds to manufacturers that start businesses on lands once occupied by coal mines — things like solar farms. The West Virginia legislature has already voted to let the two biggest utilities — American Electric Power
AEP
and FirstEnergy Corp.
FE
— install solar power in 50-megawatt increments.
Biden’s bill would relieve coal miners who have suffered from black lung from breathing in too much coal dust while underground. Coal companies now pick up much of the tab, but if the current measure does not pass, it would invariably shift that obligation to taxpayers. The measure also makes it easier to unionize, assessing a financial penalty on employers that do not allow workers to organize.
Explain It, Please
Build Back Better is a $1.75 trillion bill. Of that, $555 billion would go to funding clean electricity and electric vehicles — pursuits that would benefit West Virginia as it tries to leap from the industrial era into the green energy economy. The legislation would also increase funding for carbon capture and storage. Generally speaking, the mineworkers have moved into the 21st Century. This group also supports voting rights legislation — a cause it sees as being identical to unions’ right to organize.
“If I can’t go back home and explain it, I can’t vote for it,” Manchin said after his latest pronouncement. “Despite my best efforts, I cannot explain the sweeping Build Back Better Act in West Virginia and I cannot vote to move forward on this mammoth piece of legislation.”
Understanding Manchin requires a grasp of West Virginia’s evolution: Southern West Virginia has long been the land of the working man, helping to elect John F. Kennedy in 1960. That trend continued until 2008 — the year that President Obama vowed to take the country into the Green Energy Economy.
By 2014, the Republicans took control of the state legislature and captured all the U.S. House seats and an open U.S. Senate seat. In 2020, the state’s Republicans triumphed again — even as Trump lost nationally by 7 million votes.
West Virginians need jobs. But they also need the government, which is where the current paradox comes into play: a sizable portion of the population, especially in coal-producing regions, receive federal help — everything from food stamps to welfare benefits to social security disability. For those 10,000 or so still laboring in the coal business — down from 125,000 in 1950 — they want safe working conditions, good pay, and secure medical and retirement benefits.
The Center for Energy & Sustainable Development at West Virginia University’s College of Law analyzed President Biden’s Build Back Better program in the context of its potential effect on the West Virginia economy. If the state generated 80% of its electricity from sustainable fuels such as wind and solar, it would save customers a ton of money: $855 million through 2040. And it would increase employment by 3,500 jobs while growing earnings by $172 million annually. Billions would also be invested in newer and cleaner power plants that would increase the state’s gross domestic product by $322 million annually. Meantime, air quality would improve while modern businesses would find the state’s natural environment enticing.
Poor Poor Politician
Coal generates 89% of West Virginia’s electricity. Natural gas makes up 2% of the state’s energy mix. The center’s director, James Van Nostrand, studied the state’s electricity rates from 2008 through 2018. He found that they rose at five times the national average.
“The United Mine Workers Association is now supporting renewable energy development. Appalachian citizens who have benefited from coal understand that this industry is in decline,” says Keena Mullins, co-founder of Revolt Energy that sells solar energy in West Virginia. “They want new jobs. And it speaks volumes that the coal lobby has come out against the passage of bills to allow for more renewables, but the actual workforce that makes up the coal industry is in favor of those laws.”
To this end, the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs
GS
said that a failure to pass President Biden’s economic plan would have “negative growth implications.” Moody’s Analytics has a similar position: it predicted 4.4% growth in 2022 but said it would be off at least one percentage point if the bill dies.
Joe Manchin has been able to balance business and labor needs. But more than anything, he is a skilled politician: if he doesn’t back his party on this one, they could both be defeated in subsequent elections. Along with his good friend Cecil Robert’s plea, that possibility should motivate Manchin.
