Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed to Sen. Joe Manchin's support of fossil fuels, as well the contributions the industry has made to his election campaigns. | Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images Energy & Environment Ocasio-Cortez, progressives wary of Manchin role on energy committee

Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive lawmakers expressed uneasiness on Friday with the likelihood that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) would be leading Democrats on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

At a rally outside the Capitol, Ocasio-Cortez, Democratic lawmakers and other incoming Democratic freshmen said allowing Manchin to become the ranking member of the committee would undercut the momentum behind their "Green New Deal" proposal that calls for transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy sources within a decade of initiating the plan.


The incoming New York Democrat pointed to Manchin's support of fossil fuels, as well the contributions the industry has made to his election campaigns.

“The vast majority of Americans believe that we should not be taking money from the industries that we are legislating and really presiding over in our committee work, but in D.C. that’s a controversial opinion,” Ocasio-Cortez said alongside youth climate activists from the Sunrise Movement.

Manchin, who has a 47 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters, looks increasingly poised to assume the top Democratic spot on the committee, upsetting progressives, although no organized opposition effort has yet emerged.

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He is one of most conservative Democrats in Congress, and has steadfastly backed his state's coal industry while backing legislation to limit EPA's regulatory authority. But he is not an anomaly for the ENR Committee, whose last Democratic chairman was Louisiana's Mary Landrieu, a strong advocate for her state’s oil and gas industry and who sought to expand offshore drilling.

On Thursday, Manchin said he was willing to meet with environmental groups who opposed his taking the ranking member position. “Tell them to please come talk to me. If you talk to them, tell them Sen. Manchin is open,” he said.

Some of the more senior lawmakers who support the Green New Deal say the groundswell of progressive activism that propelled candidates like Ocasio-Cortez into office shows the party is changing. And the damage from climate change has become more visible and difficult to deny, with federal scientists from 13 agencies last week issuing a report forecasting dire economic and physical consequences across every region of the U.S. if greenhouse gas emissions continue rising.

“A decade ago it was a little easier to hide behind, ‘I’ve got a state where we can’t do this,’” Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) told POLITICO after the event, noting her Maine delegation colleagues Sens. Angus King (I) and Susan Collins (R) often side with Democrats on climate issues. “It may be hard for Joe Manchin to be there, but I think there’s going to be a lot of other colleagues who say, ‘Hey, this needs to be on our agenda, we’ve got to move forward with some legislation.’ And they could be on both sides of the aisle.”

Other lawmakers declined to wade into the internal party politics but vowed it would not affect their work.

“All we can do is make sure in the body we’re elected to serve that we do our part in having bold legislation,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told POLITICO. “And I think in the primary debate in the 2020 presidential election, we need to make sure whoever our president is going to be is committed to it.”

Concerns over Manchin came as Ocasio-Cortez and others voiced some flexibility in how a possible House select committee on climate change would be structured. Whether it’s empowered to write legislation has been a bone of contention between progressives and House Energy and Commerce Committee veterans who are opposed to giving up jurisdiction on climate change.

“My goal is not to be overly prescriptive in terms of the committee’s jurisdiction,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “My red line is that we need this legislation by 2020 and however we get there, I’m fine and I’m open to.”

Khanna said any legislative ideas would ultimately go through E&C, they way legislation like the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill did in 2009.

“It should still have to go through Energy and Commerce,” he said, noting that Speaker-designee Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has supported the new committee’s formation. “You don’t want to strip Energy and Commerce of their jurisdiction, but a lot of the work in shaping that legislation could come out of the committee.”

Backers of the Green New Deal resolution also secured their 17th and 18th endorsements Friday from Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) and Rep.-elect Mike Levin (D-Calif.).

Other lawmakers at the rally included Reps. José Serrano (D-N.Y.) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) as well as Reps.-elect Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).