Former top Manchin aide now lobbying for group focused on 'transition away from coal'

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FIRST ON FOX: A former top staff member to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., now serves as a partner to a D.C. lobbying firm that has received more than $300,000 from a group that celebrates clean energy and pushes for a transition away from coal.

Patrick Hayes, who served as Manchin's chief of staff from 2015 to 2019, joined Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid (KDCR), a lobbying firm based in the nation's capital, as a partner in 2021. Since 2021, the firm, according to U.S. Senate Lobbying Disclosure records, has been paid at least $315,000 for lobbying activities by a coal transition group named Just Transition Fund (JTF). 

Though coal production slowed in the past decade, coal accounts for most of West Virginia's energy use and the industry contributed $14 billion to the state's economy in 2019. Manchin has spoken about the need to innovate new energy sources rather than eliminate fossil fuels. 

Self-described on its website as "the only national fund solely focused on coal community transition," JTF says it works to "leverage public and private resources, and guide policy change to accelerate a just economic transition."

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Sen. Joe Manchin speaks during a hearing at the Capitol on May 4, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Additionally, JTF – which is active in West Virginia, the second-largest coal producer in the nation, according to the Energy Information Administration – promotes on its website the "transition away from coal."

Hayes first registered as a lobbyist for JTF in June 2021, lobbying disclosure records show. Since the third quarter of 2022, records indicate that Hayes has served as the sole lobbyist from KDCR representing JTF.

Since taking on the role at the firm, Hayes, according to a September 2021 report from the Washington Post, has "gone on to lobby Manchin's office."

Hayes, according to the second quarter lobbying disclosure filed by the firm, lobbied on issues "related to economic development, workforce training, and healthcare for coal workers and their communities."

The same issues, according to KDCR's disclosures from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the fourth quarter of 2022, have been lobbied by Hayes. The 2021 third quarter form reveals Hayes lobbied the U.S. Senate and the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) on those issues. President Biden appointed Manchin's wife, Gayle Manchin, to serve as federal co-chair of the federal government agency months prior and was sworn into the role in May 2021.

Hayes also took part in a JTF event promoting the American Rescue Plan, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act.

In an August 2022 tweet, JTF offered further support for the Inflation Reduction Act, sharing a quote from an article that reads: "The IRA opens the door to new cheap and clean generation resources. And it does it all with an eye toward the energy-dependent and rural communities that need it most."

The Inflation Reduction Act, as highlighted by Americans for Tax Reform, would impose a regressive tax on American oil and gas development that will drive up the cost of household energy bills in violation of Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 a year.

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Through its Twitter account, JTF has also promoted several initiatives, including "climate justice," the Black Lives Matter movement, and the World Economic Forum's plans for a transition to "net zero" emissions.

In a September 2022 press release, JTF's Heidi Binko, the group's co-founder and executive director, said she was "thrilled" about $62.8 million in rewards from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to transform "West Virginia's hardest-hit coal communities into a hub of green innovation and clean-tech industries" and praised Biden for making "economic transition in energy-impacted communities core to its broader agenda on environmental justice."

Conveyor belts carry bituminous coal from the Road Fork 52 mine owned by Alpha Metallurgical Resources on Aug. 29, 2022, in Pineville, West Virginia. (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

"Economically distressed, transitioning coal communities must know that a vibrant future in a low-carbon economy is achievable," Binko said at the time. "The award of this historic funding for the ACT Now Coalition in West Virginia sends a powerful message that when local communities, the public sector and private businesses align to drive change and can secure transformative federal funding to deliver it, a brighter economic future is within reach."

Fox News Digital did not receive an immediate response from Manchin's office on whether the senator has had conversations with Hayes about his lobbying efforts since he left his role from the office in 2019.

Manchin, who has represented West Virginia in the Senate since 2010, often takes issue with the Biden administration's comments and actions related to clean energy as he attempts to appease those with coal-related jobs in his state.

Earlier this month, Manchin called out his Democratic colleagues who want to quickly transition the U.S. away from oil and natural gas as a source of energy.

"This is bull----. So, they’re going to basically starve us out of energy that we have a tremendous, abundant supply of because of their aspirational thoughts?" Manchin told Politico, one day after Biden's State of the Union Address in which the president admitted that the country was "still going to need oil and gas for a while."

"I will continue to fight, and I’ll do everything I can to make sure the public knows what they’re doing and what it will do to you and your economy and your lifestyle," Manchin claimed at the time.

Sen. Joe Manchin is met by reporters at the Capitol in Washington, July 21, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

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In 2021, nearly 12,000 people worked in West Virginia’s coal industry, according to data compiled by Statista. The coal and gas industry also supports a large swath of jobs and economic revenue throughout the Mountain State.

A study released in 2021 that was commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute showed that the oil and natural gas industries directly and indirectly supported 82,000 jobs, or 9.2%, of employment in West Virginia. Additionally, the study revealed that the Mountain State's natural gas industry generated $11.2 billion toward the state's gross domestic product in 2019, according to The State Journal, a Charleston, West Virginia, newspaper.

Progressive Democrats, such as the far-left "Squad," have called for a faster transition to more renewable energy sources. Such a move could potentially damage local-level economies, including those located throughout West Virginia, where the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the median household income for 2021 to be a little more than $50,000.

Fox News' Brandon Gillespie contributed to this article.