Manchin rejects climate and energy provisions in reconciliation bill

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.