360+ Climate & Environmental Organizations Urge Senate to Reject Dirty Permitting Deal
Advocates point to bill’s role in beginning implementation of deeply unpopular Project 2025 agenda
Contacts
Geoffrey Nolan, Earthjustice, gnolan@earthjustice.org
Shannon Van Hoesen, Sierra Club, shannon.vanhoesen@sierraclub.org
Today more than 360 environmental organizations, representing millions of members and supporters, sent a letter to Senators opposing Sen. Manchin (I-WV) and Sen. Barrasso’s (R-WY) so-called Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 — the latest Dirty Permitting Deal. The legislation, which will be voted on in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this Wednesday, is an egregious attempt to fulfill the wishlist of the fossil fuel industry, which is laid out in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, under the guise of promoting renewable energy and developing transmission infrastructure.
The organizations write in the letter:
“This legislation guts bedrock environmental protections, endangers public health, opens up tens of millions of acres of public lands and hundreds of millions of acres of offshore waters to further oil and gas leasing, gives public lands to mining companies, and would defacto rubberstamp gas export projects that harm frontline communities and perpetuate the climate crisis.”
If passed, the bill would undermine the Biden-Harris administration’s common-sense pause on approvals of new Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) exports and restrict the Department of Energy’s (DOE) long-standing review authority by severely limiting the time DOE has to review export licenses and requiring automatic approval after a 90 day period. Moreover, this legislation would force DOE to use outdated climate science and economic analysis, while ignoring any assessment of environmental justice impacts. The bill would also lead to more leasing and drilling without federal oversight and community input and increased irresponsible speculation leading to volatile markets for U.S. consumers.
This letter re-emphasizes the concerns of these organizations regarding the environmental, community, and economic harms of further fossil fuel buildout and the dangers of forcing the Department of Energy to use outdated climate science, economic analyses, and a total lack of assessment of environmental justice impacts when deciding on pending LNG export applications.
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