Tim Kaine urges Senate to adopt his debt bill amendment
Eden Villalovas
Video Embed
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) defended an amendment to dissolve language from the Fiscal Responsibility Act that would give special accommodations to the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
Kaine said the legislation, backed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), bypasses “the normal judicial and administrative review process every other energy project has to go through.”
DEBT LIMIT: HOW THE COMPROMISE COMPARES TO THE ORIGINAL GOP DEBT CEILING BILL
Kaine introduced an amendment to strip the pipeline provision from the debt bill Thursday morning before arguing for the amendment on the Senate floor in the afternoon.
“I support improving the permitting process for all energy projects. But Congress putting its thumb on the scale so that one specific project doesn’t have to comply with the same process as everyone else is the definition of unfair and opens the door to corruption,” Kaine said in a statement.
“I don’t have an objection to the pipeline itself,” Kaine said on the floor. He added that he believes it is not for Congress to decide the pipeline’s fate.
“My Virginians just want to be sure that if this pipeline is built, it has met the requisite standards of the review agencies, both state and federal, and it has withstood any court challenges,” Kaine said, adding that one of the reasons the pipeline has long been delayed is management problems in the early life of the project.
“I do believe that the company has better management now, but the project has been cited for dozens and dozens of Clean Water Act violations, other construction problems that have led to mudslides on people’s property,” Kaine said.
Kaine said passing the provision “is a rebuke of the 4th Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals,” saying it takes away the case from the court and places it in the hands of Congress.
Other Democrats and environmental advocates have come out in favor of Kaine’s amendment, with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) tweeting his support for the debt ceiling deal reached between President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) but saying he will “oppose the inclusion of language pertaining to the Mountain Valley Pipeline.”
Kaine and fellow Democrats opposing the approval of the pipeline provision expressed disdain toward the Biden administration for not giving them a heads-up beforehand.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Manchin has buckled down on defending the controversial provision after a long fight to complete the project since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission greenlighted it in 2017. Manchin introduced legislation to finish the $6.6 billion pipeline project last summer and earned White House support as part of a deal to vote the Inflation Reduction Act through.
“Both to protect these landowners who have a right to a full and deliberate consideration if they’re gonna have to give up their land and to protect the integrity of both our court system and this body — I strongly oppose this provision,” Kaine concluded, adding that he encourages his colleagues to support the amendment.