Book contents
- The Coal Trap
- The Coal Trap
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Introduction: “The Lost Decade”
- 1 The Rise of Environmental Regulations under Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency
- 2 The Shale Gas Revolution
- 3 The Rise of Renewable Energy
- 4 The “Ds” of Today’s Electric Utility Industry: Decarbonization and Decentralization
- 5 From “Friends of Coal” to the “War on Coal”: How West Virginia Went from Blue to Red
- 6 “Leadership” from Washington, DC: The Congressional Delegation That Could Have but Didn’t
- 7 Manchin in the Middle
- 8 The Failure of the Public Service Commission to Serve the Public
- 9 The Role of the Legislature in West Virginia’s Failed Energy Policies
- 10 Bailing Out the Coal Industry on the Backs of West Virginia’s Electric Ratepayers
- 11 Coal Operators Get Rich and West Virginia Gets to Clean Up the Mess
- 12 What the Future Could Hold if Leaders Choose to Lead
- Acknowledgments
- Index
7 - Manchin in the Middle
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 July 2022
- The Coal Trap
- The Coal Trap
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Tables
- Introduction: “The Lost Decade”
- 1 The Rise of Environmental Regulations under Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency
- 2 The Shale Gas Revolution
- 3 The Rise of Renewable Energy
- 4 The “Ds” of Today’s Electric Utility Industry: Decarbonization and Decentralization
- 5 From “Friends of Coal” to the “War on Coal”: How West Virginia Went from Blue to Red
- 6 “Leadership” from Washington, DC: The Congressional Delegation That Could Have but Didn’t
- 7 Manchin in the Middle
- 8 The Failure of the Public Service Commission to Serve the Public
- 9 The Role of the Legislature in West Virginia’s Failed Energy Policies
- 10 Bailing Out the Coal Industry on the Backs of West Virginia’s Electric Ratepayers
- 11 Coal Operators Get Rich and West Virginia Gets to Clean Up the Mess
- 12 What the Future Could Hold if Leaders Choose to Lead
- Acknowledgments
- Index
Summary
No politician dominates “the lost decade” in West Virginia more than Joe Manchin III, who, at the time of writing, is currently serving his second term in the US Senate. With the Democrats taking control of the Senate in January 2021, Manchin is now chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, through which all energy-related legislation must pass, and thus has ascended to become the point person on energy and climate legislation.1 Moreover, as the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, Manchin has outsized influence on the scope of virtually all elements of President Biden’s spending agenda under the current Senate rules shaped by his predecessor, Robert C. Byrd.
Manchin has held office at the state and federal level almost continuously since 1982, when he was elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates at the age of thirty-five. After two terms in the House, he served ten years in the state Senate.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Coal TrapHow West Virginia Was Left Behind in the Clean Energy Revolution, pp. 140 - 164Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022