People have been trying to figure out why Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) caved and made a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). Manchin held out for so long on additional spending because of his concerns about inflation. He shot down Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill despite a lot of pressure. Then the same week a recession is declared, he signs on board a bill that’s going to make everything worse. It didn’t seem to make a lot of sense. Not only that, but the bill is particularly insulting to the American people with its name–the “Inflation Reduction Act”–when it doesn’t do anything to reduce inflation.

Now, we wrote about how Manchin, in effect played, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to get the CHIPs bill signed because he thought there wouldn’t be any reconciliation bill on the table. There might potentially be two big spending bills in this term, if, in fact, Manchin and Schumer were able to get this across the line.

We still don’t know where Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) might land on this, as it has tax changes of which she may not approve, and there may be folks in the House who have issues as well. Her office has said that she can’t make a decision on it until she reads the text and hears from the parliamentarian on it. She also ducked a Democratic caucus meeting, where she might have been asked about her position. Hopefully, that means she has some sense and will be standing against this–but the pressure is definitely upped with Manchin caving.

But while Manchin may have played McConnell, Schumer may be playing Manchin. The reason Manchin went along with the deal was the back-end.

As a “Climate Forward” newsletter from The New York Times explained on Thursday:

Mr. Manchin said he had won a commitment from his fellow Democrats that they would approve a separate measure to address the process of issuing permits for energy infrastructure, potentially including gas pipelines, in the weeks ahead.

The bill would also require new lease sales for oil drilling on federal lands and waters, including in the Gulf of Mexico, which environmental groups oppose.

But as Sen. Marco Rubio observed, this would only happen AFTER he signed on the dotted line for the “mini Green New Deal.” He thinks that they will ultimately “screw him over.”

Pelosi & Schumer promised @Sen_JoeManchin pipeline permitting reform AFTER he votes for the mini Green New Deal

But once they pass it & no longer need his vote they will screw him over pic.twitter.com/zXiguAghAV

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 29, 2022

Climate radicals don’t want the back end of the deal to go through because if it did, it would help the fossil fuel industry, which would stand in the way of their goal to get rid of fossil fuels.

But the package—now called the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022?—also would invest in ensuring a future for U.S. fossil energy in a carbon-constrained world. The legislation hikes tax incentives for expensive carbon capture technology 70 percent. It also requires that, for the next decade, the federal government offer tens of millions of acres offshore for oil and gas drilling as a prerequisite to the expansion of offshore wind energy development.
…

Meanwhile, other environmental groups were drafting a letter urging the Senate to reject the compromises for fossil fuel development as incompatible with goals to eliminate greenhouse gases.

“This is a climate suicide pact,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

So, we shall see, especially if the left starts screaming about it. But I definitely wouldn’t trust Schumer as far as I could throw them; I’m not sure why Manchin did. But that will open up another can of worms, when they still need his vote on other things.