Manchin, Whitehouse to talk climate, coal on Senate floor

Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) will take to the Senate floor Wednesday evening to talk climate change and coal energy policies in the U.S.

Manchin, a critic of President Obama’s new carbon pollution standards on existing power plants, will engage in a discussion with Whitehouse, a known advocate of climate policies.

{mosads}The two senators hope to find a path forward between Democrats in the Senate who back the president’s climate agenda, and those who tend to side with Republicans on the development of fossil fuels in the U.S.

An advisory states that the senators will “work together to strike a balance between the economy and the environment.”

Republicans argue Obama’s climate regulations on existing and new power plants will hurt the economy, and have called his effort a “war on coal.”

The discussion also comes as Republicans are pushing for votes on the Keystone XL pipeline, and an anti-climate rule amendment in the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) offered Republicans a vote on the climate rule amendment, which would block the administration’s carbon pollution standards for existing plants, as long as Republicans didn’t filibuster a number of Democratic measures.