WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Senator Joe Manchin said on Tuesday that he is not talking about a carbon tax in negotiations over the spending and infrastructure bills, even as some of his fellow Democrats in the Senate support it as a way to fight climate change.
“The carbon tax is not on the board at all,” said Manchin, a centrist who has opposed a key measure in the bill called the Clean Electricity Payment Plan that would boost power utility investments in renewable power to achieve Democratic President Joe Biden’s climate goals.
Manchin urged lawmakers to pass the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill before the wider spending bill and in time for the U.N. climate talks begin in Glasgow, Scotland, on Oct. 31.
“We have the trust in each other, we should be able to vote immediately on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is a tremendous piece of legislation for the President (Biden) to take with him to Glasgow,” Manchin told reporters.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Alistair Bell)
