Oct. 21, 2024, 4:29 p.m.
Time is running out for the 118th Congress, and with it, opportunities to address the unfinished business—namely, permitting reform and water-project funding—championed by two key players in the energy and environment space.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Tom Carper of Delaware and Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Joe Manchin of West Virginia are leaving Capitol Hill when their terms end on Jan. 3. They’ll leave behind sizable legacies, notably Carper’s work moving President Biden’s massive infrastructure bill through Congress in 2021 and Manchin’s efforts the following year to moderate climate provisions in Biden’s wide-ranging Inflation Reduction Act.
Both say there’s still more work to do.
Congress returns in November, and Manchin hopes there will be a chance of passing the permitting bill that came out of his committee on a 15-4 vote in July. The bill contains a plethora of provisions to speed up permitting for renewable energy by shortening review timelines. It also sets higher minimum targets for oil and gas lease sales and requires the Energy Department to decide on liquefied-natural-gas export applications within a specific timeline. Its fate now depends on the ability of Senate leadership to bring a vote on the bill during the lame-duck session.
Carper still wants to tackle his remaining priorities, which include recycling legislation and a bill to fund numerous water-conservation and flood-control projects, priorities that have become more pressing given the major hurricanes that have slammed into the Southeast over the last two months.
Regardless of whether they’re successful, both senators leave with a record of accomplishment and an all-too-uncommon eagerness to work across the aisle.
“Having served and worked closely with both Senators Manchin and Carper, I have great respect for their leadership and desire to find pragmatic solutions,” Senate EPW ranking member Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia wrote in a statement to National Journal.
It’s rare that chairs of both Senate committees overseeing the nation’s energy and environment portfolio leave Congress at the same time. That loss of institutional knowledge and continuity is magnified by the retirement of House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers this year as well.
Manchin, a Democrat-turned-independent from a top coal and natural-gas producing state, was elected in a 2010 special election and joined the energy committee he now chairs.
He played his most prominent role on Capitol Hill in 2022 when a 50-50 Senate during Biden’s first two years in the White House gave the West Virginia senator an enormous amount of influence over broad policy initiatives. Threatening to withhold support for the measure, Manchin used his leverage to reduce its price tag and temper some of the most aggressive climate-change provisions Biden proposed as part of his IRA. Manchin negotiated some protections for fossil fuel industries key to his state’s economy, though his ultimate vote in favor of the roughly $800 billion energy and climate bill cost him some popularity in his home state and made any chances of reelection more difficult.
With only a few weeks left in his 14-year career on Capitol Hill, the senator has some unfinished business when it comes to a permitting bill he has been working on for the last two years.
“I think there are so many things we've accomplished, me and [Sen.] Lisa Murkowski when she was chairman and when I became chairman working with [Sen.] John Barrasso,” Manchin told National Journal. “I think we have had a lot of things we have done. And LWCF [the Land and Water Conservation Fund]—we did permanent funding for that. We did the Outdoors Act. And getting a permitting bill would be really something special.”
Manchin has a history as a longtime player in fossil fuel policy coming from a state that ranks among the highest in natural-gas and coal production. During the bill markup, Manchin made it clear he wanted to keep this bill balanced.
“Senator Manchin and I have represented the great state of West Virginia together for decades, and have found common ground when it comes to strengthening American energy production and supporting the hardworking people of our state,” Capito wrote.
Capito, the top Republican on Carper’s committee for the last four years, had kind words for the Delaware Democrat as well.
“We have developed a mutual level of trust and understanding that allows us to find effective solutions to the infrastructure and environment challenges our country faces,” she said.
Carper has served on EPW since he was elected to the Senate in 2001. His clout as a senator was helped by his friendship with Biden, with both men having represented Delaware from 2001 to 2009.
When asked about his biggest accomplishment in the Senate, Carper beamed as he related anecdotes of working with Capito to shepherd the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—a massive piece of legislation designed to transform the nation’s aging transportation system and build high-speed internet networks throughout the country—through the Senate.
“President [Biden] set the example,” Carper told National Journal. “We got it done, and Shelley [Capito] and I got to manage the bill when it was on the floor, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, one of the most satisfying days of my life.”
At $1.2 trillion, the infrastructure law is not just a road- and rail-construction bill but also one of the largest climate laws ever passed by Congress. The bill aims to provide clean water, reliable high-speed internet, resilient highways, and bridges, while also tackling the perils of global warming.
As Congress returns after the November election for the lame-duck session, Carper has a full agenda he aims to complete. Passionate about recycling, he hopes to to send a recycling bill to the president’s desk along with a reauthorization of the Water Resources Development Act.
With the Senate likely to flip back to GOP control next year, Capito is next in line to serve as chair of the EPW, with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse assuming leadership for Democrats. ENR ranking member John Barrasso is running for whip, leaving both leadership positions on the committee open. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah is the likely candidate to win the gavel on the committee.
Lee’s potential ascension on ENR could have ripple effects. GOP Rep. John Curtis is expected to win the Senate seat in Utah which is being vacated by retiring Sen. Mitt Romney. Curtis served as chair of the House Conservative Climate Caucus and currently serves in leadership for the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“I've spent a lot of time on energy plans in the House,” Curtis told National Journal. “So we're very interested. Mike Lee is well positioned on ENR, and so that's one of our conversations is, ‘Do we still go there [to ENR] with Mike there, or do we go let Mike do that and go somewhere else?'’’
Although leadership within these committees will drastically change come January, both Capito and Carper expressed faith that the panel will continue to work in a close, bipartisan fashion.
“I think that we've planted some good seeds, and they will bear fruit, not just in the times that we're here, but in times that they might provide leadership,” Carper said.
“Both Senators will be missed, and I am optimistic this brand of bipartisanship will continue here in the U.S. Senate,” Capito wrote.
Casey Wooten contributed to this article.
