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Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia held apress conference and delivered aspeech on the Senate floor Tuesday making the case for federal permitting reforms and defending his proposed changes from progressive criticism, an indication that hes feeling the heat as opposition to what critics have dubbed the senators dirty deal continues tobuild.

Manchin is getting desperate, its the only reason hed host apress conference like this, argued Jamie Henn, the director of Fossil Free Media. But the more he defends his dirty deal, the clearer it is this is just agrab bag of handouts to his fossil fuel industry donors. Todays performance only strengthens ouropposition.

During his press conference, the West Virginia senator announced that the full text of permitting legislation that hes hoping to attach to amust-pass government funding package will be released Wednesday ahead of apotential vote next week. The Senate Democratic leadership and President Joe Biden agreed to give Manchin avote on the permitting changes in exchange for the oil and gas allys support for the recently passed Inflation ReductionAct.

Manchin complained to reporters Tuesday that his permitting proposalwhich aims to accelerate environmental reviews of fossil fuel projects such as the Mountain Valley fracked gas pipelineis coming under fire from both progressive climate champions such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Republicans eager to deny Manchin and the Democratic Party any legislative wins, even if they back the specificpolicies.

Its like arevenge politics, said Manchin, the top recipient of oil and gas money in Congress. Basically revenge towards one person:Me.

On Twitter, Sanders pushed back against Manchins comment and said that defeating the Big Oil side deal is not aboutrevenge.

Its about whether we will stand with 650 environmental and civil rights organizations who understand that the future of the planet is with renewable energy and energy efficiency not approving the Mountain Valley Pipeline, Sanders wrote. The Mountain Valley Pipeline would generate emissions equivalent to 37 coal plants or putting 27 million more cars on theroad.

Its hard for me to understand why anyone concerned about climate change would consider voting to approve such adirty and dangerous fracked gas pipeline, headded.

Manchin insists that permitting changes would carry benefits for both fossil fuel projects and renewable energy development, but climate campaigners and agrowing number of Democratic lawmakers warn the plan laid out in draft legislative language would weaken bedrock environmental laws and endanger communities in the paths of pipelines and other polluting fossil fuelinfrastructure.

Sanders tweeted Tuesday that the Big Oil side deal requires the president to prioritize 25 energy projects for expedited environmentalreviews.

Of those, 19 could be dirty fossil fuel or mining projects and ZERO are required to be renewable energy projects that would reduce emissions, the Vermont senator wrote. That isunacceptable.

In aMonday letter to Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Tom Carper (D-Del.)the founding members of the Senate Environmental Justice Caucusa coalition of nearly 80 frontline organizations and climate advocacy groups called on the trio to reject Manchins pernicious permitting legislation and any amendedversions.

We firmly believe that nothing can improve abill that would deregulate landmark environmental laws like [the National Environmental Policy Act] and [the Clean Water Act], the letterreads.

A floor fight over the permitting reforms could come as soon as next week, when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is expected to attach the Manchin-backed proposal to acontinuing resolution that must pass by September 30 to avert agovernment shutdown.

Survey data released Monday by Data for Progress shows that 59% of likely U.S. voters believe that lawmakers should consider permitting legislation as astandalone bill, and separate it from amust-pass government spendingpackage.

Thus far, just one member of the Senate Democratic caucusSandershas vowed to vote against any continuing resolution that includes fossil fuel-friendly permittingreforms.

On the House side, 77 Democrats have warned House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) not to allow the inclusion of permitting reforms in the continuing resolutionbut only Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) has pledged to vote no if the dirty deal ultimately ends up in thepackage.

If we were to pass this side deal, it would mean more plants like that harming Black and Brown communities, putting pollution in the air where kids cant be in their backyards, Khanna told The Young Turks earlier this month. Were not just talking about some abstract policy here. Were talking about allowing refineries, fossil fuel projects, and heavy industry to destroyneighborhoods.

This story was first posted at Common Dreams.

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