Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) vowed Wednesday to oppose all of President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency nominees unless the administration halts its plans to regulate U.S. power plant emissions.
Manchin, the head of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement that the EPA’s expected power generation rule, expected this week, shows that the Biden administration is “hellbent on doing everything in their power to regulate coal and gas-fueled power plants out of existence,” even at the cost of energy security or reliability.
“This piles on top of a broader regulatory agenda being rolled out designed to kill the fossil industry by a thousand cuts,” he said.
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The statement is the latest in a string of recent criticisms Manchin has lobbed at the Biden administration, which he has accused of advancing a dangerous climate change agenda at the expense of energy security.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman has grown increasingly frustrated with the administration’s policies, taking aim at everything from its implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, which he has threatened to repeal, as well as its delays in publishing the final version of its five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program.
He also announced his opposition to several Biden nominees, including Laura Daniel-Davis, Biden’s pick for a top role at the Interior Department, earlier this year, again citing concerns that politics were being prioritized over the nation’s energy security needs.
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Manchin repeated that refrain Wednesday. “I fear that this Administration’s commitment to their extreme ideology overshadows their responsibility to ensure long-lasting energy and economic security and I will oppose all EPA nominees until they halt their government overreach,” he said in the statement.
The EPA power plant rule proposal, set for unveiling Thursday, is expected to add requirements for fossil fuel-fired plants to use carbon capture and storage technologies.
