A powerful Democratic Senator is holding key US Climate policy to ransom.

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin III is demanding a key provision in the next infrastructure spending bill be stripped.

The Biden Administration had placed a key provision in the bill to rapidly replace America’s coal- and gas-fired power plants with wind, solar and nuclear energy. The provision is part of a wider, estimated $3Trillion bill focused on US infrastructure.

The New York Times now reports the provision in the bill will likely be dropped to get a deal through Congress, which will need Manchin’s vote.

The newspaper reports White House staffers are now rewriting the legislation – without that climate provision – and are attempting to come up with a new solution on climate.

The Senator has a clear conflict of interest, with investments in coal mining stocks, where he collects an estimated $500,000 per year, reports said.

The $150 billion clean electricity program was the muscle behind Mr. Biden’s ambitious climate agenda. It would reward utilities that switched from burning fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, and penalize those that do not, the Times said.

The US will be a key player in a wider deal at COP26 later this year.