In the week since he reached a deal with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer on the “Inflation Reduction Act,” Sen. Joe Manchin has been everywhere promoting it. One of the West Virginia Democrat’s top selling points is the promise to speed up permitting for U.S. energy production.
It’s a worthwhile idea. Stifling domestic production to send a message to the world about climate change has never made much sense. Indeed, it’s the best idea in the deal. Too bad it isn’t in the bill itself.
In return for supporting a fraction of the grab bag of taxes and spending most of his Democratic colleagues have been seeking over the last 20 months, Manchin has gotten an agreement that Schumer will hold a vote on the permitting reforms. But he has extracted no concessions that his colleagues will actually support them. If Democrats wanted to enact the reforms, they could easily do it independently of any new taxes and spending. Congressional Republicans would vote with them.
