Former Sen. Joe Manchin says Democrats' 2022 reconciliation law boosted energy security

David Jordan, CQ-Roll Call on Feb 25, 2026

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WASHINGTON — Despite Republicans’ repeal of much of the 2022 landmark climate reconciliation law, former Sen. Joe Manchin III stands by the legislation despite the price he paid in his home state of West Virginia.

Manchin spoke Tuesday at the National Press Club about his book, “Dead Center: In Defense of Common Sense,” in which he calls for greater cooperation between the parties in the hope that it could ease national tensions.

Manchin left the Democratic Party in 2024, registering as an independent after a 40-year career in politics that began as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates. That same year, Manchin also opted not to run for reelection. Republican Jim Justice was elected to fill his Senate seat.

During his final four years in office, Manchin was chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. After initially rejecting the Biden administration’s “Build Back Better” proposal in the 50-50 Senate, he worked with the administration to reach a deal on the reconciliation bill that eventually became the law known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Manchin said at the Press Club that the bill was a “great piece of legislation,” although in hindsight he wishes he had titled the measure the “Energy Security Act.”

Manchin said his desire to revisit the seemingly dead reconciliation package in the summer of 2022 came after seeing how Russian President Vladimir Putin “was using energy as a weapon” after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“And I’m thinking, we’re not producing what we should be producing in our own country because the Biden administration had gone totally away from any fossil [fuel] whatsoever,” said Manchin. “And the only thing I’ve said about any type of energy, you can’t take something away unless you have something that’s good, if not better, to replace it.”

The law included tax credits to support wind and solar energy, as well as forms of clean power that haven’t been deployed on a large scale such as hydrogen and geothermal. Manchin said the bill was informed by an “all of the above” approach to energy.

Many of the tax cuts, especially those for wind and solar energy, were eliminated by the Trump administration’s 2025 reconciliation law. Manchin said he still believes the 2022 reconciliation law will have an impact on the nation’s energy system.

He said the Biden administration was “overzealous” in the portion of the law that provided $7,500 for new electric vehicles, a credit that was eliminated by the 2025 law. The credit should have been structured with more limits, he said.

He also expressed frustration that the Biden administration didn’t do more to highlight that domestic oil production reached record highs during his time in office. The Biden administration focused on selling the bill as an “environmental bill,” Manchin said, adding that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ presidential nominee, only called attention to domestic energy production a month before the 2024 election.

While the Trump administration has taken actions to boost the coal industry, Manchin said the steps won’t have the desired effect of turning around the declining energy source’s fortunes because it has been driven by market forces. Manchin founded a coal brokerage with his brother before entering Congress.

He also said that other Trump administration actions, such as the repeal of the EPA’s endangerment finding that greenhouse gas emissions are air pollutants harmful to public health, won’t have a significant impact on regulated industries. He said companies know that regulations are likely to be reimposed if a Democrat takes office, and that many companies have already made investments to comply with regulations.