Coal-state groups and national allies ask Biden for clean-power transition plan; Manchin may play key role in issue

Economic-development groups in coal states, joined by labor leaders and environmentalists from across the nation, are asking the Biden administration to fund and map out a "just transition" to renewable energy. Specifically, the groups want the administration to create a White House Office of Economic Transition that focuses on rebuilding coal communities' economies. The groups also asked for the creation of a task force on communities that depend on coal and power plants for jobs, something Biden promised to do during his campaign, James Bruggers reports for Inside Climate News. 

The groups will likely get at least part of their wish. White House sources say Biden "will establish an interagency working group to help communities transition away from coal and other fossil fuels . . . headed by Climate Coordinator Gina McCarthy and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese," The Washington Post reports.

Biden vowed to shift the nation toward greener energy, and has taken steps to show his commitment to that goal. "On his first day, the president moved to rejoin the Paris climate accord and directed his administration to review and begin rolling back more than 100 rules on the environment put in place by the Trump administration, many of which benefited the fossil fuel industry," Bruggers notes. "Biden’s plan includes the goal of a 'carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035'."

Biden signed a stack of executive orders today to tackle climate change, Dino Grandoni reports for the Post: "The moves on drilling for oil and gas, conserving nature and addressing the racial and economic disparities of pollution fulfill several campaign promises. They are meant to put the United States on the path to net-zero emissions by the middle of the century and come off the heels of Biden moving to rejoin the Paris climate accord and nix the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office."

However, Biden's green-energy efforts may depend on support from Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat with a history of supporting coal. "Because Manchin is expected to become the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Democrats have only a razor-thin margin in the Senate, Manchin will likely have an oversized role in any climate legislation that might come out of Congress, including legislation to help coal communities," Bruggers writes.

Manchin didn't comment on the groups' request for a coal transition office and task force, but "earlier, in response to Biden’s initial climate moves, he said the president 'must renew America’s leadership on climate change through innovation' and that efforts to address climate change 'must create jobs in places like West Virginia and wherever traditional energy workers have been left behind,'" Bruggers reports.