A former key staffer to Manchin’s power committee has taken a job engaged on power points for D.C. lobbying agency Cassidy & Associates.
A former staffer for Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) who performed a key function in crafting the power provisions of the Inflation Discount Act has cashed in by taking a job engaged on coverage for the power trade.
Peter Stahley, who was an expert staffer to the Manchin-led Senate Committee on Vitality and Pure Assets from February 2021 till earlier this month, is now a senior vp with D.C. authorities relations agency Cassidy & Associates.
In accordance with Stahley’s Linkedin, he was “Liable for main provisions of the Inflation Discount Act and Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act, together with: mineral & provide chain initiatives together with IRA tax credit, federal oil and gasoline leasing, offshore wind and CCUS authorities, and allowing enhancements.” Stahley additionally says that he was the chief of efforts to advance bipartisan power allowing reform laws.
As an expert staffer, congressional data point out that Stahley earned about $140,000 per yr; the typical wage of a senior vp at Cassidy & Associates is $232,000, in keeping with Glassdoor. Stahley has not but registered with the federal government as a lobbyist, however Cassidy & Associates’ web site says he’ll work for its purchasers on carbon seize and storage, essential minerals, federal power leasing, IRA power and mineral tax credit, and different power points. Stahley’s transition was first reported by LegiStorm.
Considered one of Cassidy & Associates’ purchasers is Perkins Coie on behalf of Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC, a three way partnership of three power corporations that’s behind a pet mission of Sen. Manchin. In September 2022, Manchin hooked up a provision approving the pure gasoline pipeline mission to an settlement he struck with Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to vote in favor of the Inflation Discount Act (IRA). Below the deal, as a situation for his vote for the IRA, Congress would take up and go Manchin’s power allowing reform invoice that included the Mountain Valley Pipeline approval. Although a lot of Manchin’s allowing reform invoice has not been handed, the senator was in a position to slip language accelerating the approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline right into a debt ceiling invoice final yr. Cassidy & Associates additionally lobbies for gasoline pipeline firm Equitrans Midstream, one of many corporations within the Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC enterprise.
Cassidy & Associates additionally lobbies for California Assets Company on “CCUS,” also referred to as carbon seize, utilization, and sequestration. By way of the IRA, in addition to the power sections of the bipartisan infrastructure regulation that Manchin and his committee wrote, corporations engaged in CCUS have seen billions of {dollars} in tax credit and different federal investments made accessible to them. California Assets Company is focusing on 45Q tax credit for its carbon storage packages, a federal incentive that Manchin has taken credit score for increasing via language within the IRA. That invoice elevated the worth of the tax credit from $50 to $85/ton of carbon saved.
Different corporations that make use of Cassidy & Associates lobbyists who Stahley could have come throughout in the midst of his committee work embody oil and gasoline exploration agency EOG Assets, liquid pure gasoline exporter Cheniere, diamond firm Tiffany & Co., Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, residential photo voltaic panel firm SunRun, and specialty gasses firm Digital Fluorocarbons LLC. Electrical utilities together with Southern Firm and Exelon subsidiary Pepco Holdings additionally retain Cassidy & Associates.
Manchin is retiring from Congress on the finish of the yr, and Stahley is simply the most recent of his staffers to go away Congress for a personal sector authorities relations job. Earlier this month, Manchin’s senior communications director started working for Exxon Mobil as coverage communications director, in keeping with E&E Information. Not less than two different Manchin staffers have gone via the revolving door in recent times, in keeping with a report by The American Prospect—in 2021, his former legislative aide Jonathan Kott took a job at lobbying agency Capitol Counsel, and final February, the senator’s former chief of employees Lance West began working as vp of presidency relations for fossil gas trade commerce affiliation the American Petroleum Institute.
