Joe Manchin

Joe Manchin is the coal baron who held the US Senate hostage — and his personal financial interests in fossil fuels were the price of every vote he cast. Born in Farmington, West Virginia, Manchin grew up in a political family — his uncle A. James Manchin was Secretary of State. He played football at West Virginia University and went into the coal business, co-founding Enersystems, a coal brokerage that sold waste coal to power plants. This business earned him roughly $500,000 per year — while he served as chair of the Senate Energy Committee. The conflict of interest is breathtaking in its directness. Manchin's political evolution tracks the decline of the conservative Democrat. He served as West Virginia Secretary of State, then governor (2004-2010), then won a Senate special election in 2010. In a famous campaign ad, he literally shot the cap-and-trade bill with a rifle. His political brand was simple: a Democrat who would protect coal country. As West Virginia shifted from blue to deep red, Manchin became the last Democrat who could win statewide — giving him enormous leverage in a 50-50 Senate. He used that leverage primarily to serve fossil fuel interests. He killed Build Back Better's climate provisions, which would have been the most significant climate legislation in history. He demanded the Mountain Valley Pipeline — a natural gas pipeline through West Virginia — be inserted into the Inflation Reduction Act as his price for support. An ExxonMobil lobbyist was caught on hidden camera bragging that Manchin was their "kingmaker" and that they spoke with his office "every week." Coal, oil, and gas companies gave him $9 million over his career. His key relationships were with the fossil fuel industry and the pharmaceutical companies that are major West Virginia employers. Enersystems, his family coal brokerage, continued operating throughout his Senate tenure with his son running it — generating the income that appeared on his Senate financial disclosures while he shaped energy policy. Pharma companies gave $3 million; Manchin weakened drug pricing provisions alongside Sinema. The contradictions are as stark as they come. Manchin chaired the Energy Committee while personally profiting from coal. He blocked climate legislation while his state suffered some of the worst effects of fossil fuel pollution — mountaintop removal, water contamination, cancer clusters. He presented as a moderate working across the aisle, but his votes consistently aligned with his personal financial interests in fossil fuels. He left the Senate in 2024 and flirted with a third-party presidential run before declining — leaving a legacy as the man who killed the most ambitious climate legislation in American history to protect his coal brokerage.