‘A modern-day villain’: Joe Manchin condemned for killing US climate action

The West Virginia senator, a fossil-fuel millionaire, has refused to support any spending to curb the climate crisis

Joe Manchin's decision to kill off sweeping US climate legislation has been called nothing short of a death sentence" for younger people and a livable climate on Earth, amid an outpouring of anger and despair from activists, scientists and even many of the US Senator's Democratic colleagues.

Manchin, the centrist West Virginia senator who has become a millionaire through his founding of a coal-trading company in his home state, dealt a crushing political blow to Joe Biden's agenda on Thursday night when he made clear he would not support any spending to curb the climate crisis in a proposed bill.