By Emily Green

December 8, 2018 - Oregon’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden is next in line for the ranking seat on the Senate Energy Committee – a position that would hold tremendous power over which carbon policies and other climate change-related energy bills see the light of day on the Senate floor. 

This prospect comes at a pivotal time. 

As climate reports from the IPCC and even the federal government are striking an ever bleaker tone, support is building in the House around Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) Green New Deal, which aims to get the U.S. to 100 percent renewable energy and meet the Paris Accord’s goal of keeping temperature increases to below 2.7 degrees Celsius. Should Democrats keep the House in future election cycles, and take back the White House and Senate, the ranking member of the Senate Energy Committee would likely control this deal’s destiny. But it won’t be Wyden making the call. Instead, it will likely be a coal-loving senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin.

Ron Wyden

Senators are only allowed to be ranking member on one committee. Wyden and two other senators that would be next in line for the seat after him – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) – are reportedly uninterested in leaving their current top slots.

This would leave the seat – and power over carbon policy – to Manchin, who is next in line after them. He’s known as a staunch fossil-fuel ally who votes with Republicans on some issues, and who shot the cap-and-trade bill with a rifle in a 2010 campaign ad to simultaneously show of his support of guns and his state’s coal industry.

Given the potentially-high stakes of his decision not to take the seat, Street Roots asked Wyden if he would reconsider if it came down to him or Manchin.

This was the full response from Wyden’s spokesperson Hank Stern:

“A senator can only be the ranking member on one committee – as ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Wyden is well-positioned to work on legislation such as scrapping the tax code’s 40-plus subsidies for fossil fuels and replacing them with three provisions that support clean energy options, as well as other crucial issues from reducing prescription drug prices to protecting Medicaid, Social Security and Medicare.”

Climate activists demonstrated outside Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) office Dec. 3 to demand that he not allow Manchin to take the seat should current ranking member Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) move to ranking member of the Commerce Committee. 

According to Bloomberg, Manchin had lunch with President Donald Trump the same day.