Sen. Joe Manchin and President Joe Biden are in a battle of he-said, he-said.

The West Virginia Democrat has spent months accusing the White House of breaking a key part of the deal that secured Biden’s climate law last summer — specifically, Manchin’s demand for tight restrictions on tax breaks for electric vehicles.

Manchin’s vote was critical to passing the $369 billion package of clean energy incentives. But since then, he says, Biden’s regulators have made the EV tax credits way more widely available than the law envisioned.

“They’re going to try to screw me,” Manchin said of White House officials earlier this year.

But nearly two dozen congressional aides, lawmakers, administration officials and lobbyists are casting doubt on Manchin’s account of the negotiations over the Inflation Reduction Act, write Emma Dumain and Hannah Northey.

Why they fight

The conflicting accounts can in part be attributed to the swift, secretive nature of the negotiations, and the fact that Senate Democrats used the arcane process of budget reconciliation to pass the measure without Republican votes.

That meant the bill received little vetting and left the administration with broad powers to interpret its provisions, according to people familiar with the talks.

The crux of the dispute is the law’s generous tax credits for electric vehicles. Senior Manchin aides insist that Biden promised the incentives would aim to boost domestic manufacturing and mining, even if that slowed EV adoption by boxing out foreign carmakers and suppliers.

Manchin says that by expanding the number of trade partners eligible for the tax credit, Biden has broken that promise. “The president gave Manchin his word,” one Manchin aide said, adding that congressional Democratic leaders gave the same verbal agreement.

But no congressional aide or administration official Emma and Hannah interviewed would confirm Manchin’s account of negotiations. And White House spokesperson Michael Kikukawa disputed Manchin’s claim. “The president committed to implementing the law as written, and that is what the administration is doing,” Kikukawa said.

It’s all in the details

The dispute isn’t just a matter of legislative history. Manchin has expressed his displeasure with Biden by torpedoing some of the president’s nominees, and the IRA’s reception in his native state could have a bearing on whether he seeks reelection.

It also highlights the hazard of piecing together a major bill behind closed doors, said Pat Parenteau, professor emeritus at the Vermont Law and Graduate School.

There’s no such thing as an “agreement in principle,” Parenteau said. “It’s a question of how crisp and clear the writing is and do the literal words really capture what the law calls a ‘meeting of the minds.’”

Thank goodness it’s Friday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO’s Power Switch. I’m your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected]

Today in POLITICO Energy’s podcast: Annie Snider breaks down the Supreme Court’s ruling against the Navajo Nation in its fight to secure water from the Colorado River.

Power Centers

Can hydrogen save a coal plant?
A little-known company that enjoys the backing of West Virginia’s top political leaders is in talks to turn one of the state’s largest coal plants into a clean energy behemoth, writes Benjamin Storrow.

Omnis Global Technologies, a California-based firm, says it would convert Pleasants Power Station to run on hydrogen. The untested move underscores the promise and peril facing coal states as they look to new technologies to fill the gap left by a declining coal industry.

Macron has a plan
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday hinted at a fresh push to revamp the international taxation system to finance climate efforts, write Clea Caulcutt and Giorgio Leali.

“I’m in favor of an international taxation to finance efforts that we have to make to fight poverty and in terms of climate [action]. ... It doesn’t work when you do it alone,” he said on the sidelines of the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris.

In Other News

On the wings of climate change: Invading mosquitoes are bringing killer diseases to Europe.

Financial impacts: New research found that a rapid reduction in fossil fuels would have a minimal financial impact on the vast majority of people.

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India and the United States on Thursday injected new energy into their climate cooperation — agreeing to partner on everything from mineral supply chains to clean hydrogen development.

The Energy Department’s loan office provisionally approved a $9.2 billion loan for three electric vehicle battery plants by Ford and South Korea-based SK ON, in what could become the office’s biggest award.

Arizona regulators approved a plan to double the size of a natural gas power plant, a year after denying the project over concerns over resulting pollution in a marginalized community.

That’s it for today, folks. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

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