FUCKIN NOTABLE
Two days in a row Manchin gives Usurper the Finger.
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FCC nom
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IRS nom
'' How Democrats double-crossed Joe Manchin on permitting reform''
gjsentinel.com/opinion/columns/how-democrats-double-crossed-joe-manchin-on-permitting-reform/article_c29c07d2-2f8a-11ed-b00b-97546e870fdf.html
September 9, 2022
By GREG WALCHER
The author of one of America’s most famous autobiographies, The Education of Henry Adams, wrote that “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin must be wondering where his influence stops. With the 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and his distinct blend of positions on political issues, Manchin is viewed as the most important swing vote in the Senate.
When Democratic congressional leaders prepared to pass last month’s massive climate bill, cleverly disguised as the “Inflation Reduction Act,” they needed Joe Manchin’s vote. He didn’t like raising corporate taxes, adding 87,000 new IRS auditors, or giant subsidies for wind and solar power. So, leadership sweetened the deal by offering Manchin something he wanted
— a package of energy-permitting reforms he has worked on for years.
Reforms Manchin outlined back in July centered on increasing the certainty of decision timelines and allowing prioritization of important projects, two improvements that would benefit our nation’s aging infrastructure immensely. That is if politicians allow permitting reform legislation.
Manchin’s proposal would be the first modernization
— the first reform of any kind — of the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the 1970 law requiring federal agencies to consider the impact of their decisions on the environment. That was a noble goal, but over the last five decades, it has evolved into a permitting maze, almost unfathomable even to the people who get paid large sums of money to obtain permits. The regulatory hurdles, authorizations, and approvals are beyond the reach of all but large companies with substantial bank accounts and expensive lobbyists. Dozens of permits and documents are needed for most projects, and every step of the process is subject to appeals, lawsuits, and delay tactics of opponents, a perversion of the envisioned public process.
Manchin’s reform package includes designating energy projects of strategic national importance and prioritizing permitting to reduce energy costs and improve reliability. It sets maximum timelines for permitting, such as two years for NEPA reviews, and limits litigation delays by setting a statute of limitations for court challenges and giving agencies 180 days to make court-ordered changes, among other badly needed reforms. Today, NEPA reviews average 4.5 years, often followed by protracted litigation, and the average environmental impact statement is 600 pages long.
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The issue is not just about energy. Airports, highways, bridges, and other infrastructure projects encounter roadblocks and face costly delays because of cumbersome permitting processes. That uncertainty makes many projects uneconomical and, without updating NEPA, many will never be built.
The need for reforming NEPA is underscored by two recent lawsuits. First, the Bureau of Land Management settled with the environmental industry by pausing all oil and gas leasing on 2.2 million acres in Colorado, while the agency spends years “reconsidering” climate impacts. Second, a federal judge put a moratorium on coal leasing, for the same reason. Such abuses of NEPA aren’t about further analysis, they’re about delaying and blocking.
As another supporter of permitting reform, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) puts it, “Our current approval processes for infrastructure, including energy infrastructure, simply take too long
— posing a significant threat to our economic development, national security and ability to maintain our competitive edge.” Environmental projects also get caught up in permitting delays, prompting some Senate Democrats to view Manchin’s proposal as a way to expedite clean energy projects.
'' Manchin held out his vote until his party leaders agreed to a September vote on permitting reform, which would then be paired with a must-pass spending bill on the House side. With that assurance, he voted for the climate bill, and Democratic leaders double-crossed him before the ink was dry. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva (D-NM) said, “I didn’t shake hands” on it, and refuses to allow the measure to be added to any spending bill.''
Manchin rightly expects Congress to pass permitting reform. They promised, he says. But as The Wall Street Journal points out, “The West Virginia Senator’s leverage is already gone.” Grijalva simply shrugs, “I wasn’t part of the negotiations.” Of course not. They left him out precisely so he could use that excuse to kill Manchin’s bill. They never intended to honor their commitment, as Manchin is learning.
Handshake or not, both houses should work together, pass the permitting reform measure and streamline the process for all energy and infrastructure projects. That requires the support of Democrats and Republicans to finally update NEPA and remove cumbersome roadblocks stifling economic progress for too long.
Greg Walcher is president of the Natural Resources Group and author of “Smoking Them Out: The Theft of the Environment and How to Take it Back.” He is a Western Slope native.
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Gigi Sohn withdraws her nomination for President Joe Biden’s FCC
theverge.com/2023/3/7/23629307/gigi-sohn-withdraws-fcc-commissioner-nomination
Makena Kelly March 7, 2023
After 16 months, the FCC will remain deadlocked.
By Makena Kelly / @kellymakena
Mar 7, 2023, 2:36 PM EST|
Image: Pete Marovich-Pool/Getty Images
Gigi Sohn has withdrawn her nomination to serve on the Federal Communications Commission, as first reported by The Washington Post Tuesday.
Sohn, a former FCC official, longtime public interest advocate, was nominated as a third Democratic commissioner by President Joe Biden in October 2021. But over the last 16 months, a brutal and oftentimes bad-faith lobbying campaign has continued to block her nomination. That’s left the FCC with a 2–2 partisan split that has blocked many of Biden’s goals for the agency, including reinstating net neutrality rules.
“It is a sad day for our country and our democracy”
“I could not have imagined that legions of cable and media industry lobbyists, their bought-and-paid-for surrogates, and dark money political groups with bottomless pockets would distort my over 30-year history as a consumer advocate into an absurd caricature of blatant lies,” Sohn said in a statement to The Verge on Tuesday. “The unrelenting, dishonest, and cruel attacks on my character and my career as an advocate for the public interest have taken an enormous toll on me and my family.”
Sohn’s decision to drop out of consideration comes less than a month after the Senate Commerce Committee held a third confirmation hearing debating her nomination. Throughout the hearing, Republicans echoed many of the same attacks volleyed by Sohn’s critics, calling her an “extremist” and a threat to free speech.
“It is a sad day for our country and our democracy when dominant industries, with assistance from unlimited dark money, get to choose their regulators,” Sohn said. “And with the help of their friends in the Senate, the powerful cable and media companies have done just that.”
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/biden-fcc-nominee-withdraws-manchin-220737059.html
National Review
Biden FCC Nominee Withdraws after Manchin Opposition
Jeff Zymeri
Tue, March 7, 2023 at 5:07 PM EST
https://www.theepochtimes.com/biden-fcc-nominee-withdraws-following-manchin-opposition-announcement_5107542.html
Biden FCC Nominee Withdraws Following Manchin Opposition Announcement
theepochtimes.com/biden-fcc-nominee-withdraws-following-manchin-opposition-announcement_5107542.html
March 8, 2023
Politics
Gigi Sohn testifies during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee confirmation hearing examining her nomination to be appointed Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission in Washington on Feb. 9, 2022. (Pete Marovich-Pool/Getty Images)
By Amy Gamm
March 8, 2023Updated: March 8, 2023
biggersmaller
0:003:49
Gigi Sohn, President Joe Biden’s nominee to fill the vacant seat on the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), announced on Tuesday her decision to withdraw from consideration.
Sohn said in a statement, first obtained by The Washington Post, that the “unrelenting, dishonest and cruel attacks on my character and my career as an advocate for the public interest” over the past 16 contentious months since Biden first nominated her for the position “have taken an enormous toll on me and my family.”
“It is a sad day for our country and our democracy when dominant industries, with assistance from unlimited dark money, get to choose their regulators,” she said. “And with the help of their friends in the Senate, the powerful cable and media companies have done just that.”
Sohn made the announcement after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) put out a statement earlier on Tuesday saying that he would “vote against Gigi Sohn for Democratic Commissioner” on the FCC.
Referring to the bipartisan opposition to her nomination for “her years of partisan activism, inflammatory statements online, and work with far-left groups,” Manchin said that he “cannot support [Sohn’s] nomination to the FCC, and I urge the Biden Administration to put forth a nominee who can bring us together, not drive us apart.”
“Especially now, the FCC must remain above the toxic partisanship that Americans are sick and tired of,” he said, “and Ms. Sohn has clearly shown she is not the person to do that.”