The approval of West Virginia’s Mountain Valley Pipeline included in the debt-limit deal by President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is spurring action from climate protesters.
Activists with the group Climate Defiance blocked traffic on Tuesday in New York City and protested outside the Brooklyn residence of Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer.
The same organization has plans to crash a Wednesday morning panel hosted by the Economist in Washington featuring Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk.
The debt ceiling legislation, which Congress is racing to pass before an expected June 5 default deadline, greenlights the $6.6 billion, 300-mile natural-gas pipeline that is in its final construction phases but has been held up for years by legal hurdles.
The backlash is the latest example of the frustration among Democrats and green activists with Mr. Biden allowing the agreement to include the natural gas project, despite other anti-fossil fuel actions his administration has taken to combat climate change.
“The dirty deal does not work for our generation. Full stop. Our ‘climate president’ sold us out to a coal baron Senator,” Climate Defiance wrote on Twitter in a reference to Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat. “We invested our hopes in him and he stabbed us in the back. Now we must rise up to stop this plan.”
Climate Defiance will gather protesters Wednesday morning outside the downtown Washington venue where Mr. Turk is set to speak before moving inside to crash his talk, an organizer told The Washington Times.
The Department of Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
White House Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi and White House senior adviser John Podesta were originally scheduled to speak but were no longer listed on the event’s agenda.
Climate Defiance on Tuesday evening shut down traffic around Brooklyn’s bustling Grand Army Plaza and gathered outside Mr. Schumer’s Brooklyn home, according to images posted by the group on social media.
The 99-page bipartisan bill, which would waive the debt ceiling until January 2025 and impose annual spending caps, includes the approval of all remaining permits required to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
That and other concessions by the White House have left congressional Democrats and activists furious over signing off on what they say would undercut Mr. Biden’s own green agenda.
The pipeline was a last-minute deal that caught Washington by surprise, including Republicans who have advocated for its completion.
Mr. Manchin and West Virginia’s other senator, Republican Shelley Moore Capito, made several unsuccessful attempts last year to get the project approved in federal legislation.
“I am pleased Speaker McCarthy and his leadership team see the tremendous value in completing the MVP to increase domestic energy production and drive down costs across America and especially in West Virginia,” Mr. Manchin said.
Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana, a top Republican negotiator of the debt-limit deal, described the pipeline as a “strategic win for Republicans” because it’s “taking away a carrot that is going to continue to be offered” by the White House to key lawmakers — including Mr. Manchin and Ms. Capito — on other energy policy proposals.
“When the White House put this on the table toward the end … we ultimately made a strategic decision,” Mr. Graves told reporters in a call Tuesday evening.
Mr. Schumer, meanwhile, is urging for swift passage of the bill. He emphasized in a floor speech Tuesday that neither side was left completely satisfied.
“Nobody is getting everything they want. There’s give on both sides,” the New York Democrat said. “But this agreement is the responsible, prudent and very necessary way forward.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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