Oil And Gas Lobbies, And Joe Manchin, Tank A Climate Hawk's Nomination

The Sarah Bloom Raskin debacle is another strike to Biden’s climate agenda.

By Emily Pontecorvo, Grist

The remaining paths for the Biden administration to usher in a new era of federal climate action are crumbling. The president’s signature climate legislation to fund clean energy, the Build Back Better Act, has been held up in the Senate for months. The Supreme Court is expected to curtail the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. And now, Sarah Bloom Raskin, a nominee to the Federal Reserve Board who aimed to prevent a climate change–fueled financial crisis, has been forced to withdraw.

On Monday, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced that he would not vote in favor of confirming Raskin as the Federal Reserve’s vice chair for supervision. With Raskin receiving zero support from Republicans, and Manchin representing the crucial 50th Democratic vote in the Senate, the announcement torpedoed her nomination. The reason? Manchin was worried Raskin had it in for the fossil fuel industry.

Senator Joe Manchin is confronted by climate activists leaving his boat on his way to Capitol Hill

“Her previous public statements have failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation’s critical energy needs,” Manchin said in a statement.