Senator Joe Manchin American Hero "EV's, Do What Congress Voted For Not What Burecrats Want"

NETNET:Manchin Steps Up Clash with Biden Over Electric-Car Tax Credits

Senator Joe Manchin stepped up his fight with the Biden administration over its implementation of the president’s signature climate bill in a way Manchin says over-emphasizes clean energy technology, turns away from fossil-fuel production and spends too much. “They just want to throw caution to the wind and put more money out and throw more money from the Treasury and credits that basically are not going to accelerate how quickly that we can be totally self-reliant,” Manchin, a Democrat of West Virginia, said on “Fox News Sunday.” Bloomberg reports, in separate comments on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Manchin wouldn’t rule out taking legal action to stop the administration’s interpretation of the legislation. “I’m looking at every option I possibly have to make sure that that bill is fulfilled and basically implemented the way it was intended to,” he said. The law in question is the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, passed last year with support from Manchin after he, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and Biden hammered out a deal behind closed doors that circumvented the usual legislative process. Click here for the full story.

Senator Joe Manchin (D WV) threatens to sue US Treasury over EV tax credit rules Story by Reuters

Washington DC March 30, 2023; David Shepardson writing for Reuters reported the Treasury battery sourcing rules for electric vehicle tax credits, due out by Friday, will result in fewer vehicles qualifying for full or partial credits.

The EV rules are part of a $430 billion bill passed by Democrats in August to cut climate emissions and reduce drug costs, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Treasury declined to comment on Manchin's remarks.

“We have a strong and productive relationship with Senator Manchin," the White House told Reuters in a statement, adding the administration was proud of the bill and the "shared goals it achieves."

Under the new rules, 50% of the value of battery components must to be produced or assembled in North America for EV buyers to qualify for $3,750 of the credit, and 40% of the value of critical minerals must be sourced from the United States or a country with which it has a free trade agreement to qualify for another $3,750 credit.

Those quotas rise by 10 percentage points annually.

China dominates the global supply chains of products like EV batteries and solar panels.

Manchin hammered the Biden administration, which he hamstrung in legislative negotiations last year, in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece Wednesday, accusing it of thwarting the bill's original intent.

"Instead of implementing the law as intended, unelected ideologues, bureaucrats and appointees seem determined to violate and subvert the law to advance a partisan agenda that ignores both energy and fiscal security ... The administration is attempting at every turn to implement the bill it wanted, not the bill Congress actually passed."

Manchin also urged Biden "to sit down with fiscally minded Republicans and Democrats to negotiate common-sense reforms to out-of-control fiscal policy."

The White House has no immediate comment.

(Reporting For Reuters by David Shepardson and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Heather Timmons and Stephen Coates)