Angus King: Losing climate provisions in reconciliation bill weakens Biden’s hands in Glasgow

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said on Sunday that losing climate provisions in the Democrats’ multi-trillion dollar spending bill has weakened President Biden ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

Guest host Andrew Mitchell asked King on NBC’s “Meet the Press” how he felt about Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who pushed against the climate provisions in the reconciliation bill.

“Listen, Joe is the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. I’m on that committee. We’ve done a lot under his leadership on climate this year, on things like energy efficiency, on energy storage, which by the way, I think is the real key to a clean energy future,” King said.

“And he’s facilitated that. He’s worked through it. He didn’t like the provisions that were in the president’s proposal. But I don’t think that necessarily means that he’s, you know, death on climate legislation,” King continued. “I think there are other ways to approach this problem to get to the same result.”

Manchin, who represents coal-rich West Virginia, has fought back against measures that he believes threaten the fossil fuel industry.

King, on the other hand, issued a warning earlier this year on the consequences of not transitioning away from fossil fuels quickly enough.

King told Mitchell on Sunday that tackling climate change is still a major priority in Congress, adding that there are “still going to be paths that we can find to solve the problem.”

“I think the most unfortunate part about losing the provisions of the reconciliation bill is that it weakens Joe Biden’s hands in Glasgow, the climate meeting that’s coming up, because if we’re going to get the rest of the world to take serious steps to remedy this problem, we’ve got to do it ourselves,” King said.

“So I’m disappointed that we’re not going to be able to move forward with those provisions, but I think there are going to be other alternatives. And I think Joe Manchin will be there.”