Do you remember 2009-2010? The Democrats had what appeared to be a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, but it didn’t feel that way, largely because Joe Lieberman was always threatening to derail important legislation. It was very annoying, and so was he.
Even if the Democrats succeed in scraping out a tiny majority on paper in the Senate this year, they will have a similar problem; this one is named Joe Manchin. Manchin is 51 percent Democrat and 49 percent Republican. Given the state of opinion in West Virginia, he has to be. His vote can never be taken for granted, particularly on energy issues. A nominal majority may well not be an effective one.
If we get the reasonable best case scenario, expect lots of money to be flowing to West Virginia in the next two years. There is no plausible alternative if the Biden agenda is to stay on track.