Manchin meets with bipartisan group on climate change

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the Senate’s key swing vote, met with lawmakers from across the ideological spectrum Monday evening as part of a new push for bipartisan climate change legislation. 

Manchin spokesperson Sam Runyon told The Hill via email that the meeting was “an effort to gauge bipartisan interest in a path forward that addressed our nation’s climate and energy security needs head on.”

The meeting was first reported by NBC News, which said that Manchin and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) organized the meeting.

Murkowski spokesperson Hannah Ray described the meeting as “a high-level discussion on energy and climate” in an email to The Hill. 

A source familiar confirmed to The Hill that the other attendees were Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif) and Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.)

The source said that there have been additional Republicans involved. 

The meeting comes after Manchin in December effectively killed a massive bill that would have advanced the Biden administration’s climate and social spending agenda by announcing that he would not support it.

In the months since, he has expressed support for some of that legislation’s climate provisions, particularly its clean energy tax credits. 

Democrats have been expected to try to negotiate a slimmed-down bill that advances their agenda through a process called budget reconciliation that requires only 50 votes to pass. 

A source told The Hill that the latest meeting doesn’t mean Manchin won’t also support a reconciliation measure and that the matters are separate. 

Updated at 9:19 p.m.