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today. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia has long been tied to the coal industry, but at Times investigation reveals just how entwined mansion and one especially dirty power plant are my colleague, climate reporter Chris, if on exactly how mentioned intervene on behalf of a coal plant in millions along the way, The Tuesday March twenty ninth, the Chris you've, been working on this investigation into SEN, Joe Manchin of West Virginia for a couple of months now give us the top line of what you uncovered.

Sure so, my goal with this story was to go beyond what we already knew and what climate report and many people in West, Virginia and elsewhere already knew was that Joe Manchin has had long standing financial ties with the coal industry. He, according to his Senate financial disclosure documents. Gets about half a million dollars a year in income from what we call a cool brokerage that he and others own, and so the goal with the story was to find out more about what that means. What the specific nature of his financial ties to the coins. we look like who clients? What are the services he provides? Where does the money come from, and so I spent time digging into. What exactly can we find out about what his business and our systems dies and what the money

that he's making, which is about three times his salary, is under what that money is for, and it's a very private business in the sense that it shares on. No information so finding out what it does took. Some digging and what I found at a high level was a very unusual relationship between Mr Mansion and this one. Coal fired power plants, the Grand Tom Power plants and a pattern the land the decades where Mr Mansion would, on the one hand, use his influence as a public official to benefit this plant and its, is any other hands benefit himself in terms of money coming into his business and that sort of intertwine relationship only became more complicated. As his power grew ass. He rode through the ranks of politics, ok, so, tell us exactly how that relationship worked. So it goes back to the late nineteen eighty,

This is when Joe Mansion was starting his career as a public servant. He had just been elected a state sender. In what should you know? There was a part time job he may just six thousand How does a year, his main business was working in his family carpet, store near his home town of farm, it in but that wasn't going well. The business was struggling, but the one he had going form was. He was very well connected, though he wishes to state lawmaker. His uncle was estate treasurer and his father was close friends with the governor, and so in that situation comes a business opportunity in the form of two developers so around this time? The? U S was trying to become more energy independence by encouraging more electricity to be generated using alternative sources

You've got the residue of the energy crisis. Writing seventies and officials want new sources of power that can help America wean itself off foreign energy, so to developers from Pennsylvania, came to Why should you now looking to get on this train of alternative energy and specifically, they had in mind waste call. This byproduct of coal mining sometimes called gob which wait gob gob. So God is an acronym stands for garbage of bituminous. In this case bituminous coal, black call its basely garbage. So until recently, when call minors were pulling call out of the ground, they would get coal, but they also get sort of a an additional material. There was a sort of a coal mixed with rock or clay or sand, and the problem with that was it.

burn very well and so for decades and decades call had nothing to do. There was useful with his gobs. They would leave it literally piled up outside coal mines where it was treated as just trash, and it was until the eighties that the technology- really listen to use this job for something else and in this case these developers realized. There was a way to configure a power plant that you can actually burn what had previously been garbage and make literacy. Ok, so this waistcoat product gob qualified as alternative energy,

context of the nineteen eighties when the? U S, government was trying to wean America off foreign sources of energy, and so, even though the stuff was actually garbage just kind of a waste product, there was an incentive to burn it, because the contacts had shifted and, as you point out, the technology had changed and these two guys wanna. Do it that's right, but two problems came up. The first challenge was just straight money because this guy club, this waste call is actually quite hard to burn. It's also very expensive, and so initially the utility in West Virginia called Monde. Power was reluctant to sign his contract because they said we don't know if this will make sense for us economically. Now the developers were eventually able to persuade Mon power to sign a contract to buy this stuff

but once they had the contract, there was a second hurdle bad to clear, and that was the environmental hurdle, because God has high content of mercury and sulfur federal regulators said wait. And it's gonna be ok for air pollution and that's where Mr Mansion got involved, Hausa. What is mentioned do so. I spoke with the state official who was in charge of his ring these air pollution permits, and he said that, even now, more than thirty years later. He still remembers Joe Manchin coming over to him in the state and saying you know what this grantown plants, I'd really like them to get this permit. I hope you can find a way to help them get this permit. So this initial found a way to meet a ph concerns and get that permit issued summation personally intervened on behalf of this plant and clear

all the environmental hurdles, but what we did it for him, so it turns out that around the same time, Mr Mansion was helping this plants get through its red tape. He'd also set up a pair of businesses, and those businesses seem to have been built with the purpose of providing services specifically to the Grand Tom Power plants, in particular one of his best as would be, the supplier of Gob to the grantown power plants, so he'll be getting paid for providing fuel to the same plants whose red tape problems. He had just helped clear up, so he basically goes into business with the Gob plant. He just cleared all the hurdles from yet at the same time, and the thing that stuck out for me in talking to state official who helped arrange The air pollution permits said he didn't know the time that Mr Mansion had any kind of financial relationship with the grant and power plant and that,

if he had known that it would have bother, and this question came up whether it was appropriate for Mr Mansion to be in business with. This company and time and again he is followed by saying you wasn't breakin any rules increased. We know what the business arrangement actually work. I mean how much money mansion stood to gain here. So it's hard to find specific information on how much money he made early on in this relationship. One thing we do know is: I was at the county courthouse near where this plant is located. and a managed to find a lease that Mr Mansion signed with the honours of the grant on power plant right before the power plant, Sir Lop rating, and that deal gave Mister mansion. One per cent of all the revenue that the power plant earns from electricity created by

in the garb that it gets from this side, the Mister Mason owns, and so we know mansion was making money from this power plants almost right away, while so mansion actually get a cut of what the plant makes a mean. If the plant makes money He makes money to actually even better than that from his revenge and even if the plant didn't make money he's getting one per cent of gross reverie So even the plant were losing money. He would still get paid a share of what the plant brings in in terms of revenue from burning his gob wow, so not even profit that revenue just total income to the plant right and I spoke with an expert who who follows these kinds of those in western Europe, and she said it's the kind of deal you dont sign, which is anybody, because it puts Mr Mention first in line for that money from a plant. Ok, so what happens after the plant actually opens so in nineteen? Thirty, three! After clearing those hurdles,

plant opens, Mr Mention is, is still a state lawmaker and he uses his influence as they lawmaker to push a tax credit that benefits plants that burn guy now the time grants out isn't the only plant in was you know that burns grub, but is one a very small number one of just three and so even and early on. He starts facing criticism that the lawmaker he's using his power to benefit of plants. That's also the customer for his company, any brushes that off he says you know what the state ethics officer tells me. It's ok, this aspect doesn't just benefit my customers. I think it's okay, but this idea that he's existing in a grey area with this business is there almost from the beginning, and so is the position for Mr Mansion that, despite the concerns, these relationships are ok, the other important

happening at this time. In the ninety nine days is it starts to become clear that this plant, maybe isn't a super solid business operation, because almost as soon as a start operating the planet goes to state regulators and says you know what our operating costs are actually higher than we thought there would be. We need to get more money for the power that we so an initially the first time they made. This plea. State revenues said no bond power also said no, so the first attempt to remove solidify

Their business fell apart, but in two thousand and six they went back to state regulators said we really really need help. We really need to get more money for the power we generate this time they succeeded and they succeeded because Mon Power, the utility that had earlier said no. We don't support that this time, manpower was on board and something else is different to Joe Mansion by this point was governor and I dug through transcripts from old lawsuits, and I found a case where somebody who knew MR imagined and was involved in the plants, said in the deposition that he had gone to Joe Mansion as governor at this time and said we need help for the plants. The plant needs more money and, according to this deposition, Joe Manchin told his chief of staff to go and talk to Mon Power get more

power on board and indeed, more power came around and once more our came around so to state regulators so, based on this testimony, there is a straight line between job imagine using his power as governor and this power plants getting more money for electricity it produced and the reason that matters to households is that the rate increase that was approved in two thousand and six was passed directly onto ratepayers. That meant higher charges for households in West Virginia, which is already one of the poorest states in the nation. So it sounds like a deciding factor here. The thing that really changed the power companies mind about this rate increase is the fact that mansion as governor,

intervenes and the result is higher. Rates for West Virginians mentions constituents right now, when I asked Mister Mansion, he declined to answer questions so we'll never know what happened. What we do know is that Mr Mansion, according to the source, used his authority as governor to intervene, the power company and also we know that the result was unequivocally higher rates for households in West Virginia and Chris? Should we assume that the rate increase That happened resulted in more money for mansion himself, we're never going to know exactly what the financial change was for Joe Manchin, but

we do know is that by this point, according to federal data, the grant I'm power plant was the only customer for the God. The waste call the MR managed company was providing so in a very direct sense. What's good for the grant tat power plants is good for Joe Mansion. And, if we take grant town at its word, grant on this point was saying that without the rate increase, they go to business, so it that's true, Mr Mansion. Getting involved meant that he saved his only customer. We also know that well, the reigning crease might not have been enormous from the perspective of individual households. For this day as a whole, it was huge in fact, delays. Where's. I've seen suggests that over the lifetime of this contract is can mean hundreds of millions of dollars extra being paid by watching the households as a whole. Beyond what they would have otherwise had to pay for other sources of power.

But even with all the ads, the conflicts that came up from Joe mansions relationship with Grant empire plan as a state official we're really nothing compared to how those conflicts played out. once he got to the. U S: Senate we'll be right back the, This pod cast is supported by suntan, dare private clients, Santander Investment services, adviser, serious opera explains how the personalized nature of sand hunters private client programme delivers individualised financial services to satisfy each clients specific needs at sundown. The client getting to know our clients and helping them achieve goals which aren't always monetary is our version of success. Learn

were at EM white times, dot com, slash Santander goals What happens to Joe mansions relationship with the grand on power plant when he becomes you a senator. So in twenty ten Joe Mansion is first led the Senate and it initially vps holding the Kohen history to impossible standards. Even comes a champion for Only that I do believe that seven billion people on Mother Earth has had an impact on the environment. We have a responsibility. We also have seven billion people that like to eat and provide for themselves and her family. So we've got to find that balance. It's not surprising. He represents West Virginia. Mr chairman E P, a's propose standards for new coal fired power plants would effectively prevent any new plants from being construct. any takes the steps that you would expect all right. Unfortunately, the environmental Protection Agency has chosen a regulatory path devoid of common

Since he opposes new rules in the e p, a that would crack down on mercury emissions from power plants which are a significant public health hazard. He pushes back on regulation of coal ash, which is a bit issue. In what should you knew my boy zones while it down just a bit simpler? Is this ministration of the year that it has left trying to put call out of Is it yes, sir? It has certainly done that in its knowing it in a rapid rate. But it turns out that at the same time that Mr Mansion was being a sort of a defender of coal and a defender of what you dinner, there was more going on, in particular when I dug through these federal records, it turns out that, after he became a senator, the amounts of waste coal that grant down was getting from Joe mansions company increased considerably when he joined the Senate. Only about a quarter of the waste call that was used by granting came from geomantic company

in other words, grant I had other suppliers as well. For this great call you he was one among many. That's changed this point, based on the most recent available data. More than eighty percent of the waste cool they get burned. Grandpa comes from Joe mentioned company, so the relationship between Joe Mansion and this plant becomes ever tighter. He now when I asked grant Down- and Mr Mansion were explained that change that that tightening biz relationship- I got no comment, fly them, but something else is happening. It's probably even more important. I spent a long time digging into his questionable who actually owns the grant him power plant and on paper, there's an easy question answer.

A company called American by two minutes created by these two developers and its own grant, and ever since, but behind that company or a series of holding companies and behind those holding companies, turned out to be a series of major corporations with business interests. The go well beyond what should you know? Those companies are at various points as an international major utility company and our g energy, a big energy company and then Sumitomo japanese base conglomerate. That has business in all kinds of areas and what is the matter? The thing that matters is at the same time that, though,

three corporations had ownership stakes in grant town. They were also lobbying the Senate and I just loving the Senate. They were lobbying the Senate on issues that were under the jurisdiction of committees. Mister Mansion sat on, so I think the important part of this part of the story is. It really shows how MR mansions potential conflict of interest grew along with a tower So let me see if I understand what you're saying Chris, so in a period when mansion is in the: U S, Senate Veto, arguably a more powerful position. Then governor was Virginia

His company becomes even more entwined with the plant. I mean they become obsolete, co dependent on one another. It sounds like and at the same time, the parent company of the plant is actually lobbying Congress quite aggressively. It sounds like an those things taken together are kind of disturbing, because it's almost as if his own company is lobbying him right- and I spoke with ethics experts on this and the way this road to me is. There is no indication that anyone happens meant that Miss Mansion was breaking. The law is also no indication that it had had.

it's meant. Mr mansion was breaking set rules. I have to say Chris. It feels like it shouldn't be allowed. I mean, what's the logic there, so the only thing that Senate rules prohibit are for a sender to take an action that directly benefits the senator or his family or or a small category of people around him. But didn't this one do that it did it, but with other beneficiaries as well. So take one good example and twenty sixteen Mister Mansion sponsored a bill that would give states Forty two regulate kollasch. Take that away from the federal government's well on one hand, that's something that was Junior wants and other states wants, because they want more power to control energy industries in their states, but it also was especially beneficial for grand theft because Grant town because it burns wasteful,

which produces a lot of coal ash. They really depend on a lighter regulatory touch. So take action. Do we know whether Mr Imagine spotted that bill, because he thought, philosophically it was the right regulatory approach ordered his bonds that bill, because it was good for granted. If the kind of question we can never answer and the fact that we can answer it, I think really highlights the hole in the way Senate rules are applied not to the companies owned by senders but to their clients right. So, as one expert put his me, we want to know not just what mansion owns. But where the money is coming in to those companies from and that's a real blind spot in his ethics requirements. Now as problematic as Joe mentioned relationship with this power plant might have seemed until recently, it didn't have any obvious impact on the public interest or on party policy or

US policy, now that changed in two twenty climate change- climate warming. warming is an existential threat to humanity. We have a moral obligation to do with it, because in twenty twenty Joe Biden, president and by the way, the whole idea of what this is all going to do. It's going to create millions of jobs, and it's going to clean environment. Our health and our jobs are at stake and he ran and won on a campaign of addressing climate change, but the Senate also became evenly split and evenly split books. Joe Biden's climate agenda really depends on every Democrats in the Senate. Voting in favour of his bills, all eyes remain on that familiar democratically Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat Signaling and Joe Manchin effectively became the decider

it also mention is the most sought after swing boat in the fifty two fifty Senate and as the most arguably conservative member of that causes all eyes and Joe Mansion, I'm trying I'm trying to think of the last time a senator had as much power as Joe Manchin has right now and right now all eyes. man on him, Joe Biden now relies on since Mr Mansion for his support the right mansion. We don't know if he would vote for. such a bill. He says, and the result was all the sudden what had been

until then an unusual situation with Joe Mansion, but not an especially important one, all of a sudden became crucial to the future of american climate policy, and you could think of this as sort of the third chapter in this saga of Joe Manchin relationship with grantown power plants. Because all of a sudden Democrats, Present Biden and arguably the world are looking to see whether this climate agenda can pass. It all comes down. The Joe Mansion simply put. I will not support a bill that is this consequential. Without thoroughly understanding the impact that it'll have on our national debt, our economy- emotion, they all of our american people. Every elected representatives needs to know what they are voting for and the impact it has not only on their constituents, but

our country. But it turned out that, even as these negotiations are playing out in public in Washington over the fate of Mr Binds climate agenda, a very different fight was happening behind closed doors in western Junior and what was that well at the same time Mr Mansion was negotiating with Mr Biden over his climate agenda. The power plant was going to state regulators and saying we still have a problem. We need even more help because our business is in jeopardy. Specifically, the power plant said to state very letters we want to get out of our contract. We won bio. What that means is the power plant said we want to take all the money we're going to get in the future from the utility for the power we create and just get that all at once.

Now, and is it one of the reasons I needed is because their worried that the federal government might tighten climate rules and they said if that happens, not ready for it. They need an influx of money now to cushion themselves against the potential of tougher climate regulations. So it sounds like they're looking at the big climate agenda, that Biden is trying to pass an kind of seeing the writing on the wall and basically trying to protect themselves from not correct. So what happened in November? Grant our gets a hearing to see if they can persuade state railways to help them get this confusion of cash. The hearing does not go well for grant out, and it sure looks as though they are now gonna gets this cash in fusion. They ve been asking for now separately. Meanwhile, there's been months negotiations,

Mr Mansion and the White House over this planet bill a few weeks after the hearing, Mr Mansion finally comes out and states his position, and I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. I just can't I've tried everything impossible, I can't get there you're done this is this is a note. His position is no. He will not support the climate bill which effectively dooms it. This is a no on this legislation. I have tried everything I know to do and or those two things related will never know. But the timing raises the question of whether what happened in what you did? Your influenced MR mentions decision on the final bill. So how does mention explain it So, on December, nineteenth of last year, Mr Mansion released a long statement explaining his reasons why I could not support this claim

agenda and, among the reasons were what he said, was his concern that you couldn't push the? U S, power sector, to move too fast that if you tried to accelerate the move away from fossil fuels, there'd be a disaster, and so It opens the door to at least wondering whether or not the effects of tougher rules on the grant him power plants were on MR mentioned mind will never know when I asked Mister Matthews Office if that case affected his decision to oppose Mr Binds Bill his office wouldn't comment beyond saying that Mr Mansion opposed the bill. For the reasons he'd said, including fears of inflation? Other concerns yeah, I mean, I guess, he's not exactly going to say why. Yes, I'm opposing this climate bill because there's

bringing the pays me half a million dollars a year and it's gonna be affected by it. But it's sort of leaves this residue of you know, there's enough there for all of us to wonder what he's motivations really are right, bread, but the fact is that the whole problem with having a senator a powerful sender with these outside financial ties, is it always raised the question? What's really motivating decisions and when the decision in question is the entire fate of US climate policy? at a moment when other countries are looking to the? U S to lead on climate change, then, all of a sudden. What's thirty years ago, as a relationship between a state lawmaker and one small power. Assumes gargantuan proportions and argue. the changes the course of US climate policy.

and Chris, thank you. Thank you we'll be right back. If you think about it, your body eliminating damaged infected and cancer cells every single day. That's how-

stay healthy, that's Doktor, Bruce Walker of Mass General Brigham and the Reagan Institute in Boston where he helps led some of the brightest minds in medicine. We're working to make vaccines that make really Poland immune responses for diseases like cancer and HIV. If we can get there, you would really be a life altering breakthrough to learn more about doktor, walkers, innovative and lifesaving work visit, and why times, dot, com, slash and gb? Here's! What I'll do need to know today on Monday? And nobody believes we're going to take down. I was going to be talking about taking the output. President Biden defended his comment that Vladimir Putin should be removed. As president of Russia saying it was a personal expression of his quote moral outrage at Putin and not is change in american policy aimed at toppling the russian leader Thing I want to do is engage in a land war. Nuclear war with Russia, bided

The jarring remark, during a speech in Warsaw over the weekend, prompting outrage in Russia where nationalists believe the? U S is out to destroy their country and a federal judge ruled that former President Donald J Trump and a lawyer who had advised him on how to overturn the two thousand and twenty election most likely had committed. Felonies judge David Carter of the Central District of California, wrote that the actions of Mister Trump and the lawyer Johnny Spin amounted to quote a coup in search of a legal theory. Mister Trump has not been charged with any crime, in the judge's ruling had no immediate practical effect on him, but it marked a significant breakthrough for the congressional committee investigating the January sixth attack on the capital by both during the committee's argument that Trump's efforts to block Congress from certified results of the twenty twenty election could have

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