ReImagine Appalachia urges Manchin to support “Build Back Better”

ReImagine Appalachia, an organization of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia labor leaders, policy experts and community leaders, urged U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) to support President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” legislation in an open letter Sunday.

Published as a full-page ad in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the letter asked Manchin to support the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build the foundation for a 21st-century sustainable Appalachia.”

“The future that West Virginians — and Pennsylvanians — want and deserve could be in jeopardy if Sen. Manchin does not support the [Build Back Better plan] major funding package pending in Congress, one that could create good jobs in the region, rebuild our infrastructure, and address floods caused by changes to West Virginia’s climate,” the group said.

The group said the legislation would create good union jobs in Appalachia, while tackling the climate crisis. The $4.5 trillion package would address the country’s infrastructure needs, while investing in education, child and eldercare, paid family and medical leave and housing.

“Sen. Manchin has a historic opportunity to change the future of his state and ours for the better—creating hundreds of thousands of good jobs in places hungry for them,” Stephen Herzenberg, economist and executive director of the Keystone Research Center, said.

Proponents of the plan estimate it will create 10 million clean energy jobs.

“We implore Sen. Manchin to join his colleagues by putting people to work repairing damage to our land, reforesting the region, and manufacturing the products of the new energy economy,” Kelly Allen, executive director of the WV Center on Budget and Policy, said. “We don’t have time to wait: we must prioritize jobs and industry right now, at the same time we tackle the climate crisis. But we need real investments in the people of our region, and we need them now. We are publicly asking Sen. Manchin to stand up for Appalachia, secure its place at the climate infrastructure table, and turn this budget package into a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build the foundation for a 21st century, sustainable Appalachia.”