Open Letter to Senator Joe Manchin, III

September 21, 2021

Senator Joe Manchin, III
306 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Manchin:

As you can see from my letterhead, I’m not your constituent. Nevertheless, I am a loyal Democrat and have contributed to the DSCC. In the future, I may reconsider this and pick and choose among those Senators that fully support Democratic (and democratic) issues. I recognize that you want to win your elections and that to do so you need donations, large donations as well as on-the-ground support. I am familiar with federal, state, and local politics, having been a public interest lobbyist in D.C. with the U.S. Senate, a member of a local town council, and appointed by a former Governor of Colorado to a state commission.

We both (as well as many others) know your much publicized attempt to obtain 10 Republican votes to support Democratic bills is futile. I hope that the fact that at least five of your former staffers currently listed on several lobbying contracts with fossil fuel and energy companies is not influencing you. My understanding is that, collectively, these contracts are worth $2.4 million per year. As well, Jonathan Kott, your former communications director, works for Capitol Counsel, one of those lobbying firms. I do know it is legal for former aides to lobby their previous bosses after 1 year, but is this ethical? In Capitol Counsel’s press release announcing Kott’s new partnership, you are quoted as writing, that he was a “trusted senior advisor for seven years.” Shortly after Kott was hired, he was assigned to a $200,000 per year contract with the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM). Kott told the Washington Post that he speaks with Manchin and his office regularly. “I try not to call him because he’s a busy man, but I know he’s available when needed,” Kott said.

Other former aides of yours that work with fossil fuel industry clients include former Chief of Staff Patrick Hayes (Exelon), former Chief of Staff Larry Puccio (Appalachian Natural Gas Operators Coalition), former Chief of Staff Hayden Rogers (National Mining Association), and former Legislative Assistant Thomas Lucas (Sempra Energy).

As well you have ownership in two coal companies, held in a blind trust and run by your son. Thus, I recognize you have a personal financial, family stake in the coal industry. You and your family need to face up to this.

Surely you must realize that climate change and the impact of the coal and oil and gas industries are killing your voters, just as COVID-19 is, although the numbers for a specific time period may not be as dramatic, they are there. I believe you have a family that includes children and grandchildren, as I also do. Do you not care what kind of habitable world they will have to live in? Please take a look at your grandchildren and tell me you can’t support the necessary climate change and transitions needed for our and everyone else’s grandchildren to survive in a healthier world?

Rather than going along with coal and fossil fuel lobbyists and the clients they represent, encourage and help them to make the required transitions. The infrastructure bill helps to do this. Instead of deleting the possibility of doing what’s needed for climate change, work positively to help those industries change. It may take a little time, but you will be a hero if you do this.

We both know that it is a SCIENTIFIC FACT that we have to stop the use of fossil fuels to bring about climate change. The last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, from August, states that the consensus of thousands of scientists, makes one thing abundantly clear: no C02 emissions are sustainable, which means net-zero emissions ASAP.

I was brought up to believe that I had a responsibility to make the world a better place in whatever way I could. I suspect you may have some of that too from what I read about your grandmother on your website. Please do some serious soul-searching and do the right thing.

I would appreciate a response from you, Senator. I, too, know you are extremely busy, but this is the most urgent issue of our day (aside from vaccinations and COVID).

Most sincerely,

Doann Houghton-Alico

Sen. Manchin is on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, the Armed Services Committee, the Appropriations Committee,

and chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. 

This was printed on my letterhead with full contact information and mailed UPS Ground for arrival Friday, September 24.

If you know anyone in West Virginia that might be sympathetic to this position, would you please consider asking them to contact Sen. Manchin? It’s very easy for his constituents to contact him via email from his website, www.manchin.senate.gov/contact-joe. His Washington, D.C. office number is 202-224-3954.

If that is not an option for you (I, for one, know no one in West Virginia), I would ask you to please consider calling his office or writing him via ‘snail’ mail if you have any viable connection to supporting Democratic West Virginia Senatorial candidates whether through volunteer letter writing, texting, or calling during election campaigns or financially through something like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). THANK YOU!

While you’re here, take a look at my post “Corporate Sponsors of the Texas Draconian Anti-abortion Bill.”