Sen. Joe Manchin can claim a host of legislative victories as chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. But those in the know say one person on his staff played an outsize but underappreciated role in shoving those wins across the finish line.
Now Renae Black, staff director for the committee since 2020, is racing to help cement the final piece in Manchin’s legacy: an overhaul of the nation’s energy permitting laws.
“I am 100 percent confident we will get permitting reform done,” Black told POLITICO’s E&E News in a September interview. “There’s no point being anything but 100 percent. I mean, Joe Manchin is behind it. He has accomplished all of the things he set out to do. Why would this be any different?”
Despite that enthusiasm, Black, 38, will have her work cut out. With Donald Trump winning the presidency, Republicans winning back the Senate and the House nearly secured, there is less incentive to broker a deal.
