Senator Joe Manchin's bill to speed energy permitting as a handout to fossil fuel companies, but clean energy advocates said the bill's failure would hinder the rapid expansion renewable power needs to combat climate change. Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer pulled Manchin's bill from temporary government funding legislation on Tuesday after it did not gain enough support. Clean energy backers said the permitting provision could still be attached to other bills later this year that must be passed, such as a big appropriations legislation. Jesse Jenkins, a clean energy expert at Princeton University, tweeted on Tuesday that the permitting bill had been "a big mixed back for climate & the environment." "We still need to build new clean energy & transmission at unprecedented pace!"

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