Can We Arrest this Son of a Bitch?

I am referring to, of course, Joe Manchin, and his  decades long advocacy for the Grant Town power plant, which has literally paid him millions of dollars over the decades.

This is nakedly corrupt.

When Sen. Joe Manchin upbraided EPA on Wednesday for requiring power plants to reduce their carbon emissions, he didn’t mention that the agency’s rules could threaten his personal income.

The West Virginia Democrat vowed to oppose President Joe Biden’s EPA nominees because the agency’s rules being proposed Thursday could push coal- and gas-fired power plants “out of existence,” he said.

The risk to one plant, in particular, could jeopardize a lucrative source of money for Manchin. His family business Enersystems Inc. delivers waste coal to the Grant Town power plant, a financially struggling coal facility near Manchin’s hometown that he has spent much of his political career protecting.

The Grant Town plant has repeatedly threatened to shut down. Now, with the release of EPA rules that are expected to push many power plants into installing expensive technology to capture their carbon emissions before the pollution escapes into the sky, the plant faces an increasingly troubled future. Many coal plants might shut down rather than comply with the stringent new climate rules.

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Last year, Manchin earned $537,000 from Enersystems, according to financial disclosure records he filed with the Senate. He has been paid more than $5 million by the company since being elected to the Senate in 2010. The Grant Town plant is the main facility to receive coal from Manchin’s family business. Enersystems is now run by Manchin’s son, Joe Manchin IV.

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The Grant Town plant generates 80 megawatts of power, making it one of the smaller plants in West Virginia and the only one that continues to burn waste coal, a mix of mud and minerals that is often found discarded near old mines. Waste coal is a high-carbon fuel.

He has earned millions of dollars for his family business by leveraging his political influence to support the Grant Town power plant, his single largest customer.

A deep dive into his official actions and his personal finances by law enforcement would probably yield some interesting results.

There is probably nothing illegal going on here, which is the real scandal.