Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., a critic of his party's climate ideas, reportedly backed a U.S. Department of Energy nominee who wants to end the coal industry and has pushed for companies to go "carbon neutral" by 2025.
The Washington Free Beacon reported Manchin, chair of the Senate Energy and National Resources Committee, voted to confirm David Crane as undersecretary for infrastructure at the department.
Manchin asserted Crane, a former director at the state-owned Saudi Electricity Company, was "well qualified" for the job, which will oversee infrastructure projects under the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the news outlet noted.
Manchin has a 55% disapproval rating from his red state constituents, and continues to juggle West Virginia's stake in offshore oil and gas projects and the future of its coal industry, the news outlet reported.
Crane, who the Free Beacon described as an influential voice in the "green revolution," has called for the eradication of coal, an industry that contributes $14 billion to West Virginia's economy, and in 2016 urged activists to "name and shame" corporations that fail to cut enough of their energy usage.
Crane has also called for the top 100 corporations in America to become carbon-neutral by 2025, and in 2019 reportedly endorsed the Green New Deal, and has acknowledged air travel and meat consumption may have to be curtailed to fight climate change.
"There's been criticism that they don't want us to fly in airplanes. They don't want us to eat meat. You know, those are two significant carbon emitters, and it's not impossible to get rid of carbon from those two sources, but that's further down the road," Crane wrote, the Free Beacon reported.
Manchin isn't the only Senate Democrat whose support for a Biden nominee could haunt him.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who is up for reelection in 2024, voted to confirm Jared Bernstein, the nominee for chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers who once complained the price of gas was "too low" to curtail climate change, and who has also opposed the Keystone XL pipeline — a project Tester supports, the Free Beacon reported.