Biden Should Not Trade Executive Actions for Mythical Senate Promises

The Revolving Door Project, a Prospect partner, scrutinizes the executive branch and presidential power. Follow them at therevolvingdoorproject.org.

The Washington Post reported this week that President Biden is considering bartering the approval of significant fossil fuel projects in exchange for Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) vote on a modified reconciliation package that would include renewable-energy tax credits. Described as a “difficult balancing act,” the White House has apparently discussed the possibility of greenlighting ConocoPhillips’ 30-year Willow Project in Alaska, the Virginia/West Virginia Mountain Valley Pipeline, and a five-year leasing plan out of the Interior Department that, unlike what Biden pledged during his campaign, would offer new leases for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and on Alaska’s North Slope.

On its own, the idea that massive fossil fuel projects would even be on the table in the U.S. is abhorrent, given the devastating and rapidly accelerating climate crisis. In the words of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, “Investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness.” But beyond the scientific reality of the situation, the political reality that a sitting president would trade decisions about how to exercise his sole prerogative to execute the law for a legislative package that was on thin ice even before it was inevitably killed is also a significant problem.

First of all, Manchin has proven time and time and time again that his commitments are anything but binding. He has demonstrated an utter unwillingness to bargain in good faith with the president or anyone else and has instead elected to mislead and misrepresent himself (and his vote) to Biden and his aides. Thus far, Biden’s year-plus overtures on his agenda have landed Manchin with every concession he’s sought and left Biden counting only his losses. Indeed, just before this piece was published, Manchin said he would not vote for any climate measures.

Biden has real power to make progress on the issues he purports to care about, and to otherwise fulfill the campaign promises for which he was elected. He cannot continue sacrificing these powers in search of a congressional compromise that hinges upon broken promises elsewhere.

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The president should always be looking for creative ways to use existing law to better people’s lives, but playing compromise with Manchin is not only an ineffective means to this end, it’s also simply not Biden’s job.

As a refresher, the president’s role is to lead the executive branch in executing laws passed by Congress. This comes straight from Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, in what is commonly known as the Take Care Clause. The president, it states, “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

In the case of the fossil fuel projects Biden may trade for Manchin’s vote, the laws in question would include the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which requires the Department of the Interior to prevent “permanent impairment” and “unnecessary or undue degradation” of public lands…