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The Big Take
Bill Gates and the Secret Push to Save Biden’s Climate Bill
The billionaire philanthropist was among those lobbying Joe Manchin, starting before Biden took the White House. A look at the influencers who secured a rare climate win.
It was the middle of July — with temperatures surging through one of the hottest summers in US history, half of the country in drought — and the Senate’s all-important member, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, had slammed the brakes on legislation to combat global warming. Again.
That’s when billionaire philanthropist and clean-energy investor Bill Gates got on the phone with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose job it was to hold together the Democrats’ no-vote-to-spare majority.