But climate advocates on Friday morning were quick to point to Manchin’s longtime ties to the coal industry. Manchin, whose vote is critical to approving President Joe Biden’s domestic policy priorities in an evenly divided 50-50 Senate, had holdings in 2021 of between $1 million and $5 million in Enersystems, Inc., the coal brokerage that founded, according to a recent financial disclosure form. In 2021, he earned more than $536,000 from his Enersystems holdings, records show. That’s more than three times his annual Senate salary of $174,000. “Manchin is a walking conflict of interest,” Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the liberal watchdog group Public Citizen, told CNN. “And what makes it even more troubling is that he’s the 50th Democratic senator, which gives him enormous influence on climate change policy.” The debate over Manchin’s coal interests also highlights what critics say are lax congressional ethics rules that give federal lawmakers wide latitude to regulate industries in which they have financial interests. In addition to his central role on the domestic policy bill, Manchin helps set US energy policy as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He has served on the panel since entering the Senate in November 2010 after winning a special election to replace the late West Virginia Sen. Robert Byrd. Congressional rules also allow federal lawmakers to trade individual stocks — as long as they disclose the trades and don’t profit financially from inside information. “We have a system where a member of Congress can invest heavily in, say, the coal industry and then be in charge of overseeing climate policy,” Delaney Marsco, senior legal counsel for ethics at the non-profit Campaign Legal Center. “Does not make sense”. In a written statement in October, a spokesman for Manchin said the senator “is and is in full compliance with Senate ethics and financial disclosure rules.” “He continues to work to find a path toward important climate legislation that maintains American leadership in energy innovation and critical energy reliability,” the statement added. The renewed attention on Mnuchin’s energy interests comes as Biden and Democrats scramble this week to finalize a framework for a domestic policy bill that includes many of the president’s economic and climate priorities. In order to avoid conflict with Senate Republicans, Democrats rely on a budget process that requires the support of all 50 senators in the caucus. That gives Manchin, a moderate member of the caucus, enormous leverage in the negotiations. Manchin has resisted climate provisions from the first days of work on the bill — including the so-called Clean Power Program, which was the cornerstone of Biden’s climate plan, aimed at rewarding utilities for switching to clean energy sources , such as wind and solar, and penalize those who rely on coal and natural gas. Manchin signaled in October that he would not support that program, saying he did not support a program that would push utilities to move to clean energy faster than they already were. Manchin had also cited concerns that the transition to clean energy sources could mean that power would be more unreliable than the continued use of fossil fuels. “The transition is already happening,” Manchin recently told CNN. “So I’m not going to sit back and let anybody accelerate whatever the market changes.” Even without the Clean Power Plan, Manchin could not support the climate provisions in the latest version of an economic package — including tax credits for clean energy and electric vehicles — citing increased federal spending as a major driver of inflation.
Energy interests
Manchin has never hidden his ties to coal. He is a former governor of the nation’s second-largest coal-producing state and founded Enersystems before entering politics. The senator also owns a stake in another company run by his son, Farmington Resources Inc. Its services include “support activity” for coal and metals mining and oil and gas well drilling, according to company filings with the West Virginia secretary of state’s office. Between 2011 and 2020, the Democrat earned between $4.9 million and $5.1 million from coal-related businesses, according to an analysis by Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics. The agency also estimates Manchin’s net worth at $4.3 million to $12.8 million. Legislators are only required to disclose their assets and liabilities broadly, making it impossible to determine exact values. Manchin’s Senate campaign has also benefited from a flood of political contributions from the energy industry in recent months. He took more than $400,000 from energy interests during the fundraising quarter from July to September 2021, according to a CNN review of that filing with the Federal Election Commission. Donors at the time included billionaire oil magnate Harold Hamm, the chairman of Continental Resources. Richard Kinder, the executive chairman of the energy infrastructure company, Kinder Morgan. and Trevor Rees-Jones, who founded Chief Oil and Gas. He also received donations from a number of energy-related political action committees in those months, including those linked to ConocoPhillips. utilities such as Exelon and Dominion Energy; and Texas oil producer Pioneer Natural Resources. Manchin, who is not up for re-election until 2024, earned nearly $1.6 million in the third quarter of 2021 — as he and another centrist Democrat, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Simena, emerged as key players in negotiations over sweeping inside their party policy proposals.
A jumble of moral laws
Manchin’s energy holdings — and his actions benefiting the coal industry — are legal under rules that control potential conflicts of interest in the Senate. The rules vary dramatically, depending on the branch of government. Executive branch employees, for example, are generally required to recuse themselves from decision-making when their financial interests conflict with their official duties. They face possible criminal and civil charges for failing to do so. These appointees must also abide by additional ethics rules established by the President — such as not participating in decisions involving their former employers. Executive appointees can and do seek and receive waivers of ethics rules in limited circumstances. It is against the law for federal judges to hear cases in which they have a legal or financial interest, but the law does not impose penalties for violations. In Congress, meanwhile, lawmakers must be excused from taking formal action only in a narrow set of circumstances: If they or their immediate family members are part of a small group that would benefit from the legislative action. But a lawmaker who owns a dairy farm, for example, can make policy decisions that affect the entire dairy industry because those actions “also have a broad, general impact on his state or nation,” according to the Senate ethics manual. And requiring lawmakers to forgo decisions that benefit certain industries could end up hurting their constituents “who are entitled to be represented by their elected representatives by voting and participating fully in all aspects of the legislative process,” the handbook adds. Watchdog groups are urging Congress to review conflict-of-interest standards. A bipartisan measure, authored by Democrat Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, would require House members, for example, to place a wide range of holdings in blind trusts. Investments in widely held funds such as mutual funds and government bonds will be excluded. “The rules are currently inadequate to meet the challenges, especially when you consider that the American people really do see corruption as a huge problem,” said Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette of the Project on Government Oversight. His group supports the blind trust bill. “The appearance of wrongdoing is just as bad as the real thing,” he added, “because it drives the way people feel about politics and government.” This story has been updated with more information.
