CONVENTIONAL WISDOM HOLDS THAT DEMOCRATIC SENATOR JOE MANCHIN OF WEST VIRGINIA IS ESSENTIALLY FINISHED, AND WILL LOSE HIS BID FOR RE-ELECTION NEXT YEAR TO A REPUBLICAN.  APPARENTLY, MANCHIN DOESN'T AGREE, AND HAS FOUND AN ISSUE THAT HE BELIEVES WILL SHOW HIS CONTINUING POLITICAL CLOUT.  FROM FOX: 

FIRST ON FOX: Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is threatening to oppose all of President Biden's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nominees over an expected regulation targeting power plant emissions.

Manchin, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, blasted the Biden administration for aiming to shut down fossil fuel-fired power plants regardless of the impact on the nation's power grid. The Democratic lawmaker argued that neither the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), both of which he supported, gave the EPA authority to regulate power plant emissions.

"Neither the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law or the IRA gave new authority to regulate power plant emission standards," Manchin said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

"However, I fear that this Administration’s commitment to their extreme ideology overshadows their responsibility to ensure long-lasting energy and economic security and I will oppose all EPA nominees until they halt their government overreach," he continued.

The highly-anticipated EPA regulation, which could be released as soon as Thursday, will reportedly require coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to cut or capture the vast majority of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2040.

The agency confirmed in April it was reviewing the proposal internally and said it would use "legally-upheld tools, grounded in decades-old bipartisan laws," to address curb air pollution. The Biden administration has particularly been emboldened by the IRA which they believe allows the EPA to broadly regulate greenhouse gas emissions, The New York Times reported last month.

"This Administration is determined to advance its radical climate agenda and has made it clear they are hellbent on doing everything in their power to regulate coal and gas-fueled power plants out of existence, no matter the cost to energy security and reliability," Manchin said.

"Just last week, before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, every FERC Commissioner agreed that we cannot eliminate coal today or in the near future if we want to have a reliable electric grid," he added.

COMMENT:  Read the rest and don't count Joe Manchin out. 

May 10, 2023