Manchin’s victory (on the cinder)

I’m relieved that Manchin signed, because we’re getting a commitment of 40% emissions reduction by 2030, and that’s a hell of a lot better than what it looked like we were getting a few hours ago (and why I had been sobbing all week like the big old moper snowflake I am), but:

he still refuses to divest fossils (he owns a coal brokerage)

he still insists fossils need to be part of the future (with capture and sequestration, which is like using a pump to fuel a water mill🤦🏻‍♀️)

drill bans from BBBA are removed from the new bill

$369B is down from $555B in the revised BBBA and even more in the original

more drills for oil and gas including expedited leases

And the worst part is that those $555B were all for climate change stuff. The new version’s $369B is for climate and for “energy security” both baked into one post. These relabelings can have serious impact as we saw in Sweden when the peatlands preservation budget got stolen by a similar relabeling.

“Energy security” as Manchin defined it means fossils (domestic fossils, which is the “security” part). In other words, we are getting the opposite of what we asked for; some of the money from our precious bill is gonna go straight into the pockets of oil, gas, and coal.

Low-Hanging Fruit