Ben Adler·Senior Climate EditorThu, October 21, 2021, 10:14 AM·3 min readIn this article:

• Joe ManchinUnited States Senator from West Virginia
• Joe Biden46th and current president of the United States

Five young activists began a hunger strike in front of the White House on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to preserve the most important measures to combat climate change in President Biden’s Build Back Better infrastructure investment proposal.

The protest arose in response to recent news that Democrats arereluctantly scrappinga plan that would have set a national standard for utilities transitioning to clean energy sources, in order to win the support of Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a centrist Democrat from a coal- and gas-heavy state whose vote is key to passing the budget bill in the evenly divided Senate.

The strikers, who are working with the youth-led Sunrise Movement, are demanding that Biden’s full…