Joseph Manchin is an American politician who served as US Senator for West Virginia from 2010 to 2025. Manchin was the former chairman of the Interstate Mining Compact Commission and has owned stock valued between 1 to 5 million dollars in Enersystems, a coal brokerage firm. He chaired the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
On Climate Change:
In addition to Manchin’s investments in oil, he publicly criticized the Obama administration for abandoning investments in coal. In 2010, he appeared in a NRA sponsored ad where he claimed he would “take on Washington” to “get the federal administration off our backs and out of our pockets.” He also claimed that he sued the EPA and will take “dead aim” at the cap-and-trade bill.
Although he says that climate change is “real” and that human life has exacerbated global temperature rise, he does not support legislation to change the use of fossil fuels.
In 2021, Manchin played a key role in deciding the outcome of Biden’s 2.5 trillion dollar climate plan and made every effort to sabotage the legislation’s effectiveness.
See also: Kelly Loeffler, Richard Burr, James Inhofe
Climate of Denial