Manchin's Holiday Gift To Fellow Dems: A Lump Of Coal On Climate Change

This week, Democratic West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin said he cannot support the Build Back Better Act, which contains more than half a trillion dollars in climate investments. The White House has been negotiating with Manchin for months, hoping he would cast a key vote for the plan in the Senate, where their party's majority is razor thin.

Without Manchin's support, the Biden administration's most ambitious action on climate may be dead, and the U.S. could fall short of key goals to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

Reporters from NPR's climate change team — Jeff Brady, Lauren Sommer, and Dan Charles — take stock of where things go from here.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden also contributed to this episode. Read her piece Manchin says Build Back Better's climate measures are risky. That's not true.

In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.

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This episode was produced by Brent Baughman and Karen Zamora. It was edited by Jennifer Ludden, Patrick Jarenwattananon, Neela Banerjee, and Ashley Brown. Our executive producer is Cara Tallo.