Manchin rejects climate and energy provisions in reconciliation bill
CBSN
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin has dealt a huge blow to President Joe Biden's economic agenda, telling Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer that he will only support a reconciliation bill that lowers prescription drug prices and extends subsidies for the nation's health care law, the Affordable Care Act, according to a Democrat briefed on the conversations.
Manchin told Schumer that he cannot support a bill this August containing the climate or energy provisions the president seeks.
Without those climate provisions – and coupled with the recent Supreme Court ruling limiting the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions – it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the Biden administration to meet its climate goals. Biden had vowed to, by 2030, reduce the nation's greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% below 2005 levels. A study this week from the Rhodium Group found that the U.S. is on track to reduce emissions 24% to 35% below 2005 levels by 2030 – absent additional policy action.

At ski resorts across the West this winter, viral images showed chairlifts idling over brown terrain in places normally renowned for their frosty appeal. Iconic mountain towns like Aspen, Colorado, and Park City, Utah, were seen with shockingly bare slopes, as the region endured a historic snow drought that experts warn could bring water shortages and wildfires in the months ahead. In:












