Joe Manchin’s deal with Chuck Schumer on the so-called Inflation Reduction Act is bad for many reasons. Just in the past few days here at NR, you can read:
- John McCormack on how the Obamacare expansion in the bill uses a budget gimmick to make it look cheaper than it really is.
- Caroline Downey on how the Penn Wharton Budget Model finds that the bill would actually increase inflation slightly in the short run and only decrease it slightly a few years from now.
- Kevin Williamson on the hidden gas-tax increase in the agreement.
- Ryan Ellis on how the bill won’t actually reduce the deficit as it claims.
- Joe Bishop-Henchman on why the IRS funding is misguided.
- Rich Lowry and the editors on why the whole thing isn’t even smart politics.
But there is a solitary good idea in this mess of an agreement: environmental-permitting reform. James Broughel argues for these provisions today in Forbes:
For example, permitting reforms worked out as part of the deal should speed up National Environmental Policy Act reviews and limit some harmful effects of litigation, both of which tend to slow down development projects or all sorts. Progressives are sometimes leery of these kinds of reforms, but clearing regulatory backlogs speeds up renewable energy projects, along with coal and natural gas ones too.
Manchin also wants to see the Mountain Valley Pipeline completed. It’s been in a bureaucratic holding pattern for months due to opposition from environmentalists, but it may actually be good for carbon emissions as natural gas displaces some coal and heating oil use.
Less paperwork leading to more pipelines would be great news. Any Democratic embrace of supply-side economics is welcome.
The problem is that these reforms aren’t included in the reconciliation bill that Democrats want to pass. Schumer has agreed with Manchin that Democrats will support them after they pass the reconciliation bill with all the taxes and spending. That gives other Democrats the chance to screw over Manchin by reneging after they get what they want.
There’s a case to be made that permitting reform would have a meaningful revenue impact and therefore would be allowed to be included in the reconciliation bill. But most Democrats likely would not support it, as they are ideologically opposed to easier pipeline construction.
Republicans, of course, are in favor, and Marco Rubio is trying to force a vote on the permitting reforms. Today he said he will submit an amendment to the reconciliation bill that includes these reforms, which would force senators to vote on that before voting on the bill as a whole. If it passes, great news. If it doesn’t, it will show that the Schumer–Manchin deal is even more of a farce than it already is.