“We were close,” said Senator Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota, of her last conversation with Mr. Manchin, which she said occurred early last week
“We were close,” said Senator Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota, of her last conversation with Mr. Manchin, which she said occurred early last week.
Gregory Wetstone, president and chief executive of the American Council on Renewable Energy, a nonprofit group that supports green power, added, “We had good conversations directly with him and with his staff.”
“All of the prior conversations had been along the lines that he did not want to penalize fossil fuel but was fine incentivizing clean power,” Mr. Wetstone said. “We had not seen indications of pushback from Manchin or elsewhere from the clean energy provisions.”
The bill, as passed by the House, includes about $320 billion in tax incentives for producers and buyers of wind, solar and nuclear power. Electric vehicle customers would receive up to $12,500 in tax credits. Also included are $6 billion to make buildings more efficient and burn less fuel, $6 billion to replace gas-powered furnaces and appliances with electric versions, and billions more for research and development of new technologies to capture carbon dioxide from the air. Existing tax credits to lower the costs for homeowners of installing solar panels, would be extended, as would credits for geothermal pumps and small wind turbines, covering up to 30 percent of the costs.
Though Mr. Manchin has always said his share of the coal brokerage is hidden in a blind trust, any general threat to coal power would impact that business.
A counteroffer that Mr. Manchin gave the White House last week did include scaled-back climate-related tax provisions, according to a congressional official familiar with it. But beyond scope, outstanding issues remained, such as a fee on oil and gas producers that emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Mr. Manchin on Monday mentioned tax credits for electric vehicles, which he said should not be available to higher-income families, and in a statement on Sunday, he said the House-passed bill would jeopardize the reliability of the electricity grid while increasing dependence on foreign supply chains.
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