Climate activists hail Dem budget spending on clean energy

WASHINGTON (AP) — Environmental groups hailed a sweeping $3.5 trillion domestic spending plan announced by Democrats, saying it would make “transformational investments” in clean energy and jobs and put the nation on a path to cut greenhouse emissions by at least 50% by 2030. The plan also would move the country toward a carbon-free electric grid by 2035, with 100% of U.S. electricity powered by solar, wind, nuclear and other clean energy sources.

But with few details made public, and narrow Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, the deal reached late Tuesday was far from settled.

At least one prominent Democrat, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, signaled he will oppose plans to curb subsidies for fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. Both fuels are crucial to his rural state’s economy.

“Anybody moving in a direction where they think they can walk away and not have any fossil (fuel) in play, that’s just wrong,″ said Manchin, the chamber’s most conservative Democrat and chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Eliminating fossil fuels, which are major contributors to global warming, “won’t happen," Manchin told reporters Wednesday. ”It can’t happen and it doesn’t do a darn thing but makes the world worse.”

Manchin's comments were out of step with most Democrats and climate activists, who said the proposed budget deal meets President Joe Biden’s climate change goals of 80% clean electricity by 2030 and a 50% cut in greenhouse gas emissions across the economy within a decade, while advancing environmental justice and American manufacturing.

The framework would fund a so-called Clean Electricity Standard that would require the electric grid to move away from fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, and replace them with renewable...