Could West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin doom President Biden’s effort to curb climate change?

Ambitious climate change legislation is hanging by a thread. It’s part of the $3.5 trillion budget package Congressional democrats are debating. The party’s self-imposed deadline to pass it is the end of this month. That’s when a major United Nations climate change summit is set to take place in Glasgow.

If the U.S. doesn’t show up with a domestic agenda for cutting emissions, it’s likely other major polluters, like China, would feel less incentivized to cut their emissions. It might doom the last hope to curb extreme warming.

Right now, the fate of President Biden’s climate agenda seems to be coming down to West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. He announced late last week that he’s opposed to some of the climate policies in the spending plan.