Manchin-chaired energy panel faced with climate change-fueled wildfires amid Mountain Valley Pipeline pushback

West Virginia has been spared the worst of the adverse air quality impact from the more than 150 Canadian wildfires, with air quality levels well below that of New York City and other areas reporting intense smoke that has delayed flights and outdoor events in the Mid-Atlantic.

Unofficial air monitors indicate Eastern Panhandle counties were the most impacted in the state as of Thursday evening, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said in a news release.

Citing airnow.gov, home of the EPA’s index for reporting air quality, the DEP cited index scores for Eastern Panhandle counties ranging from 151 to 200, a range categorized as “unhealthy.” In that range, some members of the general public may experience health effects, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The billowing of wildfire smoke choking the Northeast U.S. has shown the entire country is vulnerable to suffering from climate change-fueled extreme weather patterns behind the spread of wildfires like droughts and warmer temperatures.

Witnesses testifying before the Manchin-chaired Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Thursday morning highlighted that trend.

“The climate continues to play an oversized role in extreme fire weather we’re experiencing across the nation and across the continent,” said Jeffrey Rupert, director of the Department of the Interior’s Office of Wildland Fire.

Jaelith Hall-Rivera, deputy chief of the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, testified that wildfires have become larger, lasted longer and been harder to address over the past 20 years because of accumulating fuels and a warming climate.

“We can look right outside here in Washington, D.C., and see those impacts,” Hall-Rivera said. “Wildfire risk has reached crisis proportions.”

Manchin briefly mentioned climate’s role in escalating that wildfire risk in an opening statement.

“Our committee has discussed at length the impacts of climate conditions and past mismanagement of our forests that has ushered in a new era of fuels and wildfires,” Manchin said.

But Manchin has drawn the ire of climate advocates by vocally supporting a debt limit deal signed into law by President Joe Biden Saturday designed to force completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Critics say the 303-mile gas pipeline running through 11 West Virginia counties into Virginia will deepen the nation’s dependence on climate-harming fossil fuel infrastructure.

Equitrans Midstream Corp., the pipeline’s lead developer, has estimated that total greenhouse gas emissions from the project would amount to 48 million to 57 million metric tons per year.

Outside the White House Thursday afternoon, anti-pipeline protesters said the smoke-filled atmosphere supported their argument.

“Look at this,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., said, referencing the Washington haze protesters had gathered in, many wearing masks. “Today, children can’t play outside at school ... because of all this. We have a right to breathe clean air, y’all.”

Manchin, who has acknowledged the scientific consensus behind climate change and supported a key climate and renewable energy spending package last year, recently has stepped up his attacks on Biden administration efforts to strengthen climate action.

Last month, the coal brokerage founder said he would oppose all of Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency nominees until the administration halted what Manchin called “government overreach” in a statement. Manchin’s pledge was a preemptive strike against the administration for targeting power plant emissions a day before the agency announced a proposed rule to strengthen carbon pollution standards for fossil fuel-fired plants.

In April, Manchin threatened to the Inflation Reduction Act, the $369 billion climate and renewable energy spending package he lent critical support to in the evenly divided Senate last year. Manchin said his approval was in exchange for congressional approval of a forced completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The latter measure stalled until it was attached to the debt limit deal.

Manchin wrote a letter Tuesday to EPA Administrator Michael Regan urging that a fee on methane emissions approved in the Inflation Reduction Act be postponed at least a year. Manchin cited concern that operators wouldn’t have enough time to deploy funding allotted for them to improve equipment and processes that lower methane emissions or follow EPA program guidance.

Manchin reported making roughly $2.5 million from 2017 through 2021 from stock he owns in Enersystems Inc., the coal brokerage he founded in 1988, in Senate financial disclosures. Manchin has denied that his vested coal interests have influenced his policymaking.

“We’re fighting for our future, not one that’s filled with smoke,” Monroe County landowner Maury Johnson said at Thursday’s rally against the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

The U.S. Air Quality Index has assigned Charleston a “moderate” level of concern in recent days, with index values ranging from 51 to 100. In that range, the EPA considers the air quality acceptable but warns there may be a risk to some people, especially those who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.

The DEP said Thursday evening it and state health and emergency officials were watching for potential air quality issues.

Environmentalists have taken little assurance in the DEP’s ambient air quality monitoring network, which has monitored for particulate matter pollutants across 13 sites in 11 of West Virginia’s 55 counties. None of those sites are located in the state’s southern coalfield counties, where coal operations have driven long-lingering air quality concerns.

The Manchin-chaired Energy and Natural Resources Committee focused on wildland firefighter recruitment and retention issues. The U.S. Government Accountability Office flagged low pay, poor work-life balance, and career advancement and mental health challenges as barriers to recruiting and retaining federal wildland firefighters.

Rupert said wildland fire management is changing rapidly because of climate change, increased fire activity and vast landscape transformations.

Outside the White House, Johnson was among the protesters viewing the Mountain Valley Pipeline as fuel for the fires.

“I think Mother Nature sent her representative here today,” Johnson said.