Among the items on President Joe Biden’s lame-duck wish list: a permitting reform effort backed by West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.
Biden hopes that Congress will advance Manchin’s effort to streamline permitting as part of a pending defense authorization package during the upcoming lame-duck session, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday.
The White House and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have supported Manchin’s effort after Manchin agreed to vote for the Inflation Reduction Act — a massive climate, energy and health care bill, in exchange for Democratic leaders’ pledge to pursue permitting reform.
Top White House officials also previewed Biden’s upcoming international travel.
The president is expected to tout the Inflation Reduction Act and other climate policies at the COP 27 climate conference in Egypt and during other international meetings.
“The president heads to COP 27 with historic momentum on climate, thanks to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and other significant steps that put us on an enduring path towards meeting our ambitions and clean energy goals,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Thursday.
Biden will “speak to his personal commitment to addressing the climate crisis,” and highlight U.S. climate policies,” Sullivan said.
The president will also “underscore the need to go further, faster to help the most vulnerable communities build their resilience, without losing sight of the need for the world — and particularly for the major economies — to cut emissions drastically in this decisive decade.”
The president will be in Cambodia on Sunday and Indonesia on Monday for meetings with world leaders. He’s slated to attend the annual G-20 summit in Indonesia next week, where energy will be on his agenda.
“He’ll focus on a range of pressing global economic challenges, especially for emerging and vulnerable economies,” Sullivan said. That will include “energy security and the clean energy transition.”
