WV climate groups respond to the latest from Manchin

 Climate Alliance representing dozens of regional groups underscores the urgency of the climate crisis; rally at Manchin office planned for Monday

 

Charleston, W.Va.– Senator Joe Manchin announced today that he wants to delay a  plan to use the money that wealthy corporations owe to pay for desperately needed projects to help our climate and workers. 

In response, the West Virginia Climate Alliance submitted a letter to Senator Manchin (letter here). When the letter was sent, the Alliance requested an in person meeting with Senator Manchin, noting they had not been able to meet with the Senator in over a year to discuss grassroots concerns about climate impacts in the state.

“Every day that we delay taking action on the climate crisis makes our weather more extreme and the implementation of solutions even more challenging. The country, and indeed the planet, need Senator Manchin to negotiate in good faith on a bill addressing the climate crisis with the goal of keeping global warming below an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Passage of this bill should not be contingent on a one month inflation report,” said Perry Bryant, founder of the WV Climate Alliance.

Manchin’s move comes just one day after more than 100 homes, roads and bridges in McDowell County, WV were damaged from climate-related flooding. 

The Rev. Jeffrey Allen, executive director of the West Virginia Council of Churches, stated, “Climate change is a crisis of today. It’s flooding in West Virginia and Virginia; fires in the West; and drought here and abroad. There is an enormous cost that we already bear due to our lack of action and it’s a cost being borne by our neighbors. Passing climate change legislation is as local as it gets. This legislation is not only for our neighbors, but for all of those people who we care deeply about. For their sake, we cannot afford to delay any longer.”

As the letter to Senator Manchin notes: “The late Senator Byrd said many times that filibustering the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was his biggest regret; the decision troubled him for the rest of his life. We encourage you to deeply consider the broad implications of continued delays to act to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change, for your own children and grandchildren, and for all the children and grandchildren in our beautiful mountain state and across the world.”

Karan May, Sr. Campaign Representative for theSierra Club said, “Folks in Appalachia are among the hardest hit by the effects of climate change. West Virginians are paying the price for poor health outcomes from pollution; here and in Kentucky and Southwest Virginia, year after year, we are paying the enormous price for catastrophic flooding. Senator Manchin has the opportunity to facilitate meaningful change for his constituents and, yet, is choosing to walk away from legislation that could help alleviate this suffering.

We will continue to fight for policy that will address the climate crisis, while also putting money back into our communities with investments in clean energy and sustainable economic development.”

Linda Frame, President of the WV Environmental Council, said “After a year of good-faith discussions with Senator Manchin and his team it’s hard not to be deflated by this latest delay. We continue to urge Senator Manchin to seize this opportunity to do the right thing for our state, our country, and our planet because the alternative is unthinkable.” 

“The overall cost of building climate change resilient infrastructure, as well as the transition to a clean energy economy, can be paid for now,” said Eve Marcum-Atkinson, Comms. Coord. fFor WV Citizen Action Group. “Tax minimums for millionaires and the elimination of zero-tax-paying loopholes for corporations are how we do this. They have financially benefited from our people’s labor, our nation’s infrastructure, and our economy. We need them to pay their fair share to help us all, as we continue to struggle with the effects of rising prices, increases in dangerous storms, record temperatures, drought, flooding, and more. We need Senator Manchin to fully embrace this now, as climate change is a now issue, a global issue. It’s not going away.”

“No matter our race or income, we want to live and raise our families in healthy and safe communities. Done right, the reconciliation bill is an opportunity to create bridges across our differences rather than making them deeper. Appalachia has been hit hard both by climate change impacts and global energy shifts – with Black and brown communities seeing disproportionate impacts. At the same time, we have an incredible opportunity to mitigate the climate crisis by investing in the communities hardest hit. Appalachian communities need action from Congress, this delay on key climate provisions not only hurts communities struggling with flooding and job loss due to the downturn of the coal industry, it pushes back other urgent actions we need to see from Congress,” said Dana Kuhnline, Campaign Manager for ReImagine Appalachia. 

“Promoting good energy legislation is part of Senator Manchin’s role as chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. We call on him to not further delay action on the issues he proclaims to champion. It’s past time to listen to the science that shows a transformational clean energy transition will mitigate climate change while saving lives and creating new jobs,” said Morgan King, climate campaign coordinator of WV Rivers Coalition.

PRESS ARE INVITED TO A MONDAY RALLY AT SEN. MANCHIN’S CHARLESTON OFFICE:

WV Citizen Action and other groups are calling on everyone who is concerned about passing robust Climate Change policy, and paying for it by making millionaires and tax-dodging corporations pay what they owe, to show up at Sen Manchin’s office at 900 Pennsylvania Ave., Charleston, WV 25302, at 5PM on Monday July 18th. If you can’t make it, call his office at  304-342-5855 and tell him to quit stalling on Climate and Taxes! For more info contact info@wvcag.org  Gary Zuckett @ 304-437-3701 or check out events on https://www.facebook.com/WVCAG 

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FOUNDED in 2020, the WEST VIRGINIA CLIMATE ALLIANCE is a broad-based coalition of almost 20 environmental organizations, faith-based, civil rights and civic organizations, and other groups with a focus on climate change. Members of the Alliance work together to provide science-based education on climate change to West Virginia citizens and policymakers. 

FOR MORE ON THE CLIMATE ALLIANCE, VISIT: WVClimateAlliance.org

(The AFSC WV Economic justice Project is a proud member of the WV Climate Alliance)

Child Tax Credit should help those who need it most

 Imagine developing a powerful medicine that could dramatically reduce human suffering, and then denying it to those who need it most.

Unfortunately, something like that could happen, with legislation now under consideration in Washington. The “medicine” is the expanded child tax credit that was passed as part of the American Rescue Plan and that went into effect in July and could expire at the end of the year, unless action is taken.

The child tax credit covers nearly all American children, including about 346,000 in West Virginia. And that’s a good thing. When the first installment of the refundable credit went out for the first time on July 15, the Census Bureau found that food insecurity in households with children immediately dropped by about 25%.

Probably the greatest thing about the child tax credit is its broad reach. By covering so many families, it could do for kids what Social Security did for elderly Americans. Before Social Security became a thing, poverty rates were high for older Americans. In 1969, for example, more than a third of older Americans experienced poverty. By the end of the century, the rate had dropped to less than 10%.

Without Social Security today, the poverty rate for the elderly would climb to nearly 40%, but it also makes life easier for millions of families living above the poverty line. That’s one reason why it’s so popular.

The child tax credit can do the same for our children. It has the potential not only to help working families but also to reduce child poverty by nearly half. However, that will happen only if it is extended and if it doesn’t exclude those families living in deepest poverty.

It’s kind of like the flip side of the old story about asking a bank robber why he robbed banks. He answered, “That’s where the money is.” If you want to reduce child poverty and the lifelong damage it can do, you need to go where the money isn’t.

Any measure that would impose income requirements to qualify for an extended child tax credit would undo its most beneficial effects by leaving out those with little or no income.

One population that could be hit hard by income and employment requirements is households with grandparents and other seniors raising children. According to the Census Bureau, in 2019 — before the COVID-19 recession — West Virginia was among the top five states where grandparents were responsible for taking care of children. We’re mostly talking about retirees, although anyone who has raised children knows that is work.

According to a news report from Clarksburg’s WBOY, “More than half of grandparents in West Virginia who live with their grandchildren who are 18 or younger are responsible for them, according to the 2019 U.S. Census numbers, making West Virginia the second in the nation for grandparents raising grandchildren.” The numbers have gone up since then.

According to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, slightly over half of state children in foster care are in a formal or informal kinship/relative home, with much of the weight carried by seniors.

Another group that could miss out is people with disabilities or those who care for them, a group that overlaps to some degree with seniors. In 2019, about one in five West Virginians (nearly 350,000) had some type of disability. For people over age 65, the figure is about 40%. In 2017, 37% of working-age West Virginians with disabilities, i.e., those most likely to have children, lived in poverty.

Then there are parents and kids in domestic violence situations, which have been described as “intimate terrorism.” Among a host of bad things, this can keep people from meeting income and employment requirements for reasons of either power and control or personal and family safety.

According to Futures Without Violence, a national nonprofit advocacy group, “About one in four women experience intimate partner violence over their lifetime and reported some related impact.” Women between the ages of 18 and 24, prime childbearing years, suffer the highest rates of intimate partner violence.

The group also notes: “Increased financial security also gives survivors of domestic violence more options for safety for themselves and their children, such as living independently from an abusive partner.” Too often, people stay with abusive partners because they lack financial resources to support themselves and their children. Fully 74% of women in those situations reported staying in an abusive environment because they lacked financial resources according to a 2012 survey.

The Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody reports: “One researcher has estimated conservatively that at least 10 to 20% of children are exposed to intimate partner violence annually, with as many as one-third exposed at some point during childhood or adolescence.”

Nobody wins by denying benefits to people who are too terrorized to hold a job.

Aside from those situations, there also are people simply with very low incomes, those who have lost work because of the pandemic and seasonal workers in industries like tourism, one of our few growing economic sectors.

The beauty of the child tax credit is that it benefits a wide range of families with children. That needs to stay. But we shouldn’t leave anyone behind, especially those who would gain the most.

(This ran as an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.)

Say it ain't so, Joe

 WV Senator Joe Manchin wrote an op-ed yesterday on his opposition to the HR 1/S 1 For the People Act, which was designed to protect and expand voting rights. No doubt that was good news to white nationalists, insurrectionists and their enablers and apologists, and vote suppressors--but, as this article shows, it was a slap in the face to Black West Virginians, who arguably provided his margin of victory in the last election, not to mention anyone who cares about democracy.

On a positive note, it was nice to see the United Mine Workers Union issue this statement today in favor of the proposed legislation. Union president Cecil Roberts said that  “Congress should be doing everything possible to not just maintain, but expand voting access and create freer and fairer elections. If only one party is interested in doing that, then so be it.”

I think somebody kicked a hornet's nest and I have a feeling this isn't over.

Why wait? Remembering before November

A quick glance at social media in the wake of WV's primary election results has led me to issue this proclamation: the word of the day is schadenfreude. It's German for the pleasure some people--not me, of course--derive from the misfortunes of others...especially when they seem to be well deserved.

(I couldn't find the German word for the specific pleasure victorious teachers and school employees feel when one of their adversaries loses an election. If it doesn't exist, it should.)

There are lots of giddy and gleeful memes and tweets circulating celebrating the landslide victory of pro-union and moderate Republican Bill Hamilton over the inflammatory state senator Robert Karnes, who once referred to union members as "free riders."

Hamilton, who served many terms in the WV House, won by a margin of 63 to 37 percent in a very conservative district. Karnes seemed to go out of his way to antagonize education workers during WV's recent successful teacher's strike.

According to this Vice report, of the 115 candidates endorsed by the WV Education Association, 99 won. The WV AFLCIO likewise did pretty well.  While we're at it, here's more coverage by AP, the Gazette-Mail, and WV Public Broadcasting.

Another big winner who got a boost from teachers and union supporters was Richard Ojeda, a state senator running for congress and champion of teachers and other workers. He won 52 percent of the vote in a field of several candidates, the nearest with only around 25 percent of the vote.

In terms of a blown opportunity, I still say that Senator Joe Manchin was a huge loser in not publicly championing striking education workers like Ojeda did when he had the chance. To be fair, Manchin was quietly supportive, but the situation and the moment called for more than that. He'll face a tough race in November and could easily have had a lot more enthusiasm behind him. I believe in baseball that's called an unforced error.

Manchin tries hard to be bi-partisan, but the love he shows to the Trump administration seems to be unrequited. I kind of wonder how that's working for him.

A tale of two politicians, biblically considered

I've been thinking about lately about the contrast between two of West Virginia's prominent Democratic politicians: US senator and former governor Joe Manchin, who is running for re-election,  and state senator Richard Ojeda, who is running for congress.  

(Note: It is the official policy of Goat Rope not to engage in any form of electioneering or candidate endorsement. But that doesn't preclude commenting on political issues or politicians.)

According to a recent poll, Manchin's approval rating dropped by 17 points in the last quarter. That poll could well be an outlier, but the drop is pretty steep. I haven't seen recent Ojeda polling, but it seems pretty clear that he is surging in popularity.

Ojeda was widely--and rightly--seen as a champion of teachers and school workers during the recent strike. As far as I could tell, Manchin remained silent about the strike on social media until the day before it ended, aside from one news story in which he called for a post-legislative special session.

I may have missed other coverage, but I was looking for it at the time and didn't find it. It really seems to me that Manchin missed a great opportunity to be seen as a strong supporter of working people. And that his numbers would look quite a bit different if he'd have taken the chance when it came. It's too soon to tell whether the poll was a fluke or whether Manchin will get his groove back, but I think there's a lesson here.

Manchin is at his most comfortable talking about "common sense," common ground and bringing people together. And there are times when that can work. But there are other times when it's necessary to take a stand and draw a line. As the Book of Ecclesiastes said, to every thing there is a season, "a time to rend and a time to sew."

Keeping with the biblical theme, this probably isn't a good year to be a Laodicean, which in the Book of Revelations was a church criticized by the risen Jesus as being lukewarm:  'I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth."

Whoever has ears, let them hear.

 

A slow news day--updated

Note: I apologize to Goat Rope email subscribers for filling their inbox but had to correct a type/Freudian slip in the second paragraph.

Golly, yesterday must have been a slow news day. I can't think of much to write about. I guess I'll have to improvise.

Here's my quick take on the elections, starting with El Cabrero's beloved state of West Virginia. First Governor Joe Manchin handily defeated Republican challenger John Raese for the late Robert C. Byrd's senate seat, although the race itself was a lot closer than most people expected. This means that state senate president Earl Ray Tomblin from Logan County will take over as governor, although it's not clear that he'll hold that seat until 2012 or whether there will be a special election between now and then.

There were ugly undertones to this race, some of which seemed to be racial in nature, as this WV News Service story suggests. Among these were signs equating Manchin with Obama (the signs were black on white). Still all that and tons of outside money weren't enough. The Manchin campaign seemed to get off to a slow start and sometimes appeared to try to outflank Raese from the right, a distinct impossibility, but eventually got on pace, even developing a sense of humor.

Manchin's victory was considered key to keeping a Democratic majority in the Senate, although his stands might occasionally drive his fellow Democrats crazy. In another time and place, Manchin might have been a moderate Republican. I always tell people from out of state who ask about him that as governor he's had good days and bad days, although in fairness his administration has been fairly accessible and he genuinely wants to reach out to as many (different) people as possible.

It was also interesting that southern WV congressman Nick Rahall handily defeated his Republican challenger Elliot "Spike" Maynard, again despite lots of outside money and the financial support of corporations like Massey Energy. If you recall, Maynard lost his state supreme court seat in 2008 after pictures emerged of him vacationing with Massey CEO Don Blankenship in Monaco. This marks the third indirect (or maybe not so indirect) defeat in a row for Blankenship.

As expected, Republican congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito kept her 2nd district seat. Republican candidate David McKinley narrowly defeated former state senator Mike Oliverio in the first district after longtime Democratic incumbent Alan Mollohan lost the primary. Oliverio was a conservative, pro-business candidate who alienated labor and other progressives in the legislature and he ran without their support. Some unions even endorsed his opponent and many others were indifferent to the outcome.

There was no Republican blowout at the state legislative level. Republicans appear to have gained four seats in the house, bringing their total to 33 out of 100 delegates. Democrats gained two seats in the state senate, bringing the total to 29 out of 34.

Democrat Tom McHugh retained his state supreme court seat in a close race with challenger John Yoder, a contest that was distinguished by its relative civility.

I will make only one comment about a US senate race in another state. Nevada senator Harry Reid survived a tough fight with Tea Party challenger Sharron Angle. I found it oddly amusing that among those who campaigned hard for Reid were mixed martial artists associated with the popular Ultimate Fighting Championship. Here's a little snip from Politico:

"The UFC is one of the most powerful brands in the world for reaching 18- to 30-year-olds," Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller said. "Anytime a candidate gets their endorsement, it sends a powerful message to that demographic."

Reid, a former boxer, apparently found some kindred spirits among UFC brawlers.

Moving on to national issues and struggles, here are just a few that appear to lie ahead:

*deficits versus recovery. Many economists (not to mention regular humans) fear that cuts in public spending could slow down the economic recovery and job growth. This is going to be a major issue given the new majority in the US House;

*health care reform versus repeal. The new majority has made no secret of its desire to repeal health care reform. They don't have enough of a majority to prevail in the Senate or to override a presidential veto, but they could attack funding streams. This will be a challenge all round, as many aspects of reform will probably prove to be quite popular, although major changes aren't scheduled to kick in until 2014. This will be a major fight.

*Social Security and Medicare. Those who enjoyed the 2005 fight to preserve Social Security can take consolation in the probability of having to take that on again.

*climate change. I have a feeling that the world has a relative short window to get its act together on this and that the first decade of the 21st century was pretty much wasted. I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope for the second decade either at this point. If this is going to go anywhere, there needs to be a movement behind it. And a lot of work has to be done here and in other energy producing states to figure out ways to deal with all the complicated issues of environment, energy, and economy.

Interesting times, huh?