"West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, whose opposition is threatening to derail President Joe Biden’s massive social-spending plan, wants to expand at least one of its climate provisions: a tax credit to keep nuclear plants operating.

Manchin, the powerful Democrat from coal- and natural gas-rich West Virginia, backs the credit for nuclear plants that is tucked inside Biden’s Build Back Better legislation. Under the version passed by the House, a credit of as much as $15 per megawatt-hour could be claimed for the next six years. Manchin, whose support is necessary for Senate Democrats to pass the legislation on a party-line vote, wants the tax credit to last 10 years instead, according to three people familiar with the matter. 

Nuclear power plants are struggling to survive amid competition from low-cost natural gas and renewables. Analysts, power companies and some environmentalists say that without federal aid a wave of nuclear plants could be shuttered and replaced by facilities that emit greenhouse gases. "