Dear Majority Leader Schumer,
I am writing this letter on behalf of myself and my dear friend, Lisa Saxe. We are California citizens who have been strong supporters of the Democratic Party for decades and we are troubled.
Why is West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources?
We understand that before climate change became the single biggest threat to the human race, it made sense to have someone familiar with the fossil fuel industry on the committee that creates legislation for the industry. Unfortunately, for years we have allowed denial of climate change to prevent meaningful legislation.
This must stop. We’re out of time.
Joe Manchin made almost half a million dollars this year in dividends alone from the coal brokerage firm he founded in 1988. That’s twice his salary from the Senate. We strongly believe this is the reason he won’t support Biden’s game-changing infrastructure bill--one that would have positive repercussions for generations to come.
It’s also the reason Manchin should not be leading the climate legislation effort.
We believe you understand this as well.
We realize you’re in a bind. You can’t eject him from the party for failing to support the party agenda because that would cost you your job and put McConnell back in the role of Grim Reaper.
We have another idea.
We suggest taking a page out of the Republican playbook. Specifically: Strip Senator Manchin of his Chairmanship of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Cheney lost her committee assignments for telling the truth. Surely, you can remove Manchin from his Chairmanship for serious conflicts of interest.
The American people need and deserve leadership who views climate change legislation as the urgent issue that it is. We can’t allow the legislative response to this crisis to be hijacked by a man whose main source of regular income is coal, and whose recent response to the mounting pressure to support Biden’s agenda (which includes addressing climate change) was “What’s the rush?”
Our planet is burning. That’s the rush. If Manchin can’t see that, he’s going to do more harm than good, and we don’t have time to take that gamble.
We need you, Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, to act.
We know it’s too much to ask for Congress to stop playing both sides of an issue publicly while they try to raise money. We understand that exposing corruption on the part of one member of Congress would only lead to a landslide of similar exposés that would leave virtually no member untouched.
We are not asking for meaningful reform within Congress. (As much as we’d like to.)
But is it too much to ask that the Chairman of the Senate Committee who will be the driving force behind any future climate legislation not be someone who makes twice as much from the coal industry each year as he does from his job in the Senate, the job that is financed by the American people?
We sincerely hope not.
You’re the leader. We need you to lead. Be bold. Protect us from people who don’t understand the urgency of the moment.
We have no time to waste, and we’re tired of talk that results in nothing. We are begging you.
Respectfully,
L.A. Fosner and Lisa B. Saxe