Manchin quietly pressed Biden administration to fund group led by campaign treasurer
Gabe Kaminsky
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Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) quietly urged the Biden administration to grant taxpayer dollars to a climate coalition that includes a group whose head is the campaign treasurer for the West Virginia Democrat, records show.
Manchin signaled support in an October 2021 letter to the Commerce Department’s assistant secretary for economic development, Alejandra Castillo, for the West Virginia-based Appalachian Climate Technology Now coalition to receive $100 million through President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill signed in March of that year. Jack Rossi, the head of an economic development group in the coalition called the Charleston Area Alliance, also happens to be the treasurer for Manchin’s Senate campaign, according to campaign finance disclosures.
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“Please accept this letter as a record of my support for Coalfield Development Corporation, their respective coalition partners, and this application,” the senator wrote in the letter. “I understand that, if approved, funding provided by this opportunity will be utilized to support the Appalachian Climate Technology Now Initiative.”
The letter added: “The ACT Now Initiative will create an industrial cluster around a number of climate resilience technologies while focusing on the development of resilient infrastructure and site readiness, attracting, training and retaining a skilled workforce, fostering entrepreneurship and startups, and building community capacity.”
Manchin’s letter made no mention of his ties to Rossi, Fox News reported. The ACT Now coalition had previously brought forth an application to the Commerce Department to receive a portion of the $1 billion that the American Rescue Plan would hand out through its Build Back Better Regional Challenge, which “aims to boost economic recovery from the pandemic and rebuild American communities, including those grappling with decades of disinvestment,” according to government documents.
The ACT Now coalition said in its application that it would “develop and scale climate resilient industries” in central Appalachia and invest in green energy. In December 2021, the Biden administration announced that the coalition was one of 60 finalists among 529 applicants to receive the funding, a press release shows.
Finalists received $500,000 and competed for funding of up to $100 million, according to the Commerce Department. Then, in September 2022, the ACT Now coalition became one of 21 finalists to receive the bulk handout — receiving roughly $62.8 million in grants “to spur job growth in 21 economically distressed and coal-impacted counties in southern West Virginia by creating a hub of clean energy and green economy jobs,” the department announced.
“West Virginia continues to see the benefits of the critical American Rescue Plan investments that drive economic development and create good-paying, long-term jobs, and today’s announcement is great news for our entire state,” the West Virginia senator said on Sept. 2, 2022.
He added: “It is a testament to our hardworking fellow West Virginians and forward-thinking communities that West Virginia was one of just 21 recipients of the EDA’s Regional Challenge program. I’m pleased the EDA is investing nearly $63 million in communities across southern West Virginia to strengthen local economies, support our energy industries and expand job opportunities.”
The ACT Now coalition “identified eight projects” for the $63 million, including $13 million for Learning, Innovation, Food & Technology Center in Charleston, West Virginia, according to a press release. The Charleston Area Alliance, which Rossi leads, helped announce the funding and is benefiting from it, along with the City of Charleston, Marshall University, and others, records show.
Coalfield Development’s CEO Brandon Dennison said that his group “sought” Manchin’s support and is “not a political organization” or “political coalition.”
“As far as I know the chairs of any of the boards involved in ACT Now are unpaid volunteers,” he told Fox News. “I do not follow politics closely enough to know who the treasurers of campaigns are.”
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The Commerce Department did not return a request for comment.
“Virtually every economic development organization in West Virginia is a member of the ACT Now coalition, which is why Sens. Manchin and Capito and Gov. Justice have robustly supported their application,” Sam Runyon, a spokesman for Manchin, told the Washington Examiner.