Sen. Joe Manchin is promising to work to undermine the Biden administration’s historic proposal to limit tailpipe emissions in a presidential election year.
The West Virginia Democrat and chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday threw his support behind efforts to repeal EPA’s proposed rule to limit smog, soot and carbon from cars and trucks starting with model year 2027 — a move designed to hasten the transition to all-electric vehicles.
“I fully support Congress overturning these dangerous EPA regulations,” Manchin said in a statement, in which he also accused the administration of “lying to Americans with false claims about how their manipulation of the market to boost EVs will help American energy security.”
Manchin will join with Senate Republican leaders in this endeavor. They announced their intentions, at their weekly press conference Tuesday afternoon, to deploy the Congressional Review Act to overturn the rulemaking.
“Joe Biden has surrendered America’s energy policy to the climate extremists,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the ranking member on ENR. “I am going to make sure that every senator in this chamber is put on record on having to vote on where they stand for this reckless policy.”
Resolutions under the CRA have become popular vehicles in a Republican-controlled House and a closely divided Senate — where they only require a simple majority for adoption — to disapprove of Biden administration policies and force Biden to use his veto pen. Manchin has sided with the GOP on several so far.
The vote to overturn the proposed tailpipe rule under the CRA can’t happen until after the rule is finalized; that isn’t expected to taken place until later this year, at least, which would punt a resolution into early 2024.
But that doesn’t mean Manchin can’t continue, in the intervening months, to make life difficult for the Biden administration, which has already crossed the senator once in recent weeks over its implementation of the EV tax credit in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Manchin berated EPA on Tuesday for setting up its proposed emissions standards as a “Trojan horse,” where the United States would be forced to rely on “minerals and technologies controlled by the Chinese” in order to meet new deadlines to produce more EVs.
“Taken in concert with the clear violation of the IRA to undermine provisions that would actually secure these supply chains, this Administration is taking steps that will only result in a more energy secure and powerful China,” Manchin continued. “I don’t believe that making progress on climate change should come at the expense of our national and energy security.”
Reporter Jeremy Dillon contributed.
