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Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Joe Manchin (D-WV) speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill, November 30, 2023.
If there was any indication that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) truly planned on a third-party run for the presidency, his top staffers would probably remain at his side until a final decision is made. Instead, with Manchin’s Senate career over, his team is heading for the exits, wooed by a familiar landing spot: the oil and gas industry.
Even if a third-party presidential run were in play, fossil fuel lobbying is a far more lucrative career option, and one much less likely to put staffers on the outs with the Democratic establishment in the future.
Manchin’s longtime press aide Sam Runyon has joined ExxonMobil’s government relations team as their new policy communications director. First reported by E&E News, Runyon left for Exxon at the start of the new year, after serving with the conservative Democrat since 2016, most recently as his communications director.
Runyon is just the latest example of the revolving door between the office of the chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and Big Oil.
In 2021, Manchin’s longtime senior aide Jonathan Kott went to work for a D.C. lobbying firm that represents ExxonMobil, among other corporate clients, within a few years of leaving the senator’s side. Kott has lobbied specifically for ExxonMobil, disclosures show, as well as the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, a trade association to which ExxonMobil belongs. Kott conceded that he privately called Manchin’s office during deliberations over what would become the Inflation Reduction Act.
Last year, Manchin’s chief of staff for over ten years, Lance West, took his talents and deep connections to the oil and gas lobbying powerhouse the American Petroleum Institute, as their vice president of federal relations, a euphemism for lobbyist.
And Larry Puccio, another former Manchin chief of staff who is so close to him that he’s been described as “the Manchin whisperer,” works on behalf of a number of fossil fuel clients, including the Appalachian Natural Gas Operators Coalition, which lobbies on behalf of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Manchin secured exemptions to federal environmental laws for the construction of the pipeline. Puccio has also worked for Diversified Energy, owner of 70,000 oil and gas wells across the United States.
Elliot Howard, an Energy Committee staffer for Manchin, has lobbied for a number of energy industry interests, including one of ExxonMobil’s oil company rivals, BP.
Manchin has been uniquely positioned to shape American energy policy over the past decade as a key swing vote for Democrats to maintain control of a narrowly divided Senate.
ExxonMobil’s hired guns and even Manchin himself have not been discreet about their mutual admiration for one another over the years. In an interview conducted by undercover climate activists, one of Exxon’s lobbyists bragged about meeting with Manchin’s office on a weekly basis. He referred to Manchin as a “kingmaker” and top ally for sabotaging unfavorable climate legislation.
Manchin has been uniquely positioned to shape American energy policy over the past decade as a key swing vote for Democrats to maintain control of a narrowly divided Senate. Since 2021, he has chaired the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. A staunch defender of fossil fuels, he worked to protect their interests at nearly every turn, from securing subsidies for oil and gas to fighting to kneecap environmental legislation opposed by the industry. Most prominently, Manchin helped kill the cap-and-trade bill during the Obama administration.
As pressure mounted for climate action during the Biden administration, Manchin became the main impediment to the framework for the Build Back Better agenda. Eventually, Manchin agreed to a reduced form of the bill, which turned into the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, pairing continued tax subsidies for fossil fuels alongside ones for clean energy. Changes to require leasing of public land to oil and gas companies before allowing public leases for renewable energy was seen as an “Easter egg” by industry CEOs. “If you look at the pros and cons, the pros generally outweigh the cons,” one lobbyist told Politico in 2022.
In addition, the carbon capture provisions in the deal are seen as a way to potentially extend fossil fuel extraction, aiding companies like ExxonMobil. “Exxon has made carbon capture a centerpiece of its low-carbon investments, and wants to build hubs in industrial areas where several companies could collaborate on projects,” Barron’s wrote in 2022.
Manchin has consistently been a top recipient of oil and gas campaign contributions, notching tens of thousands of dollars from the industry and its various trade associations. Manchin has his own personal ties to the energy business as well, including a number of coal companies he founded in West Virginia in the 1980s. Though Manchin put his stake in a blind trust, his children took over the companies and Manchin netted $4.5 million from the companies according to public disclosures reported on by The Intercept.
Just this week, Joe Manchin’s address at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics presidential forum was shut down by the activist group Climate Defiance. The same group also disrupted a panel Manchin was speaking on held by the news outlet Semafor last year.
