Lisa Frank
Executive Director, Washington Legislative Office, Environment America; Vice President and D.C. Director, The Public Interest Network
Executive Director, Washington Legislative Office, Environment America; Vice President and D.C. Director, The Public Interest Network
Former Director, Environment Campaigns, PIRG
Director of Media Relations, The Public Interest Network
[email protected]
WASHINGTON – Sen. Joe Manchin (WV) proposed on Wednesday new legislation aimed at speeding up the permitting and construction of energy projects, including pipelines, mining and transmission lines. Key provisions of the bill:
Sens. Manchin and Schumer agreed to pass legislation to speed up permitting — which will eventually weaken environmental protections — in exchange for enacting the Inflation Reduction Act, which is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 via clean energy tax credits and other programs. However, dozens of members of Congress have come out in opposition to the permitting portion of the deal as more details have come to light.
Lisa Frank, executive director of Environment America’s Washington Legislative Office, released the following statement:
“‘Move fast and break things’ was a questionable approach for a social media company, but it’s even more suspect when applied to projects that could irreversibly harm our environment. Underlying this bill is an assumption that building more pipelines, mining more of our public lands and drilling more in our oceans is a national good, one we should seek to speed up as much as possible. But when we’re developing two football fields worth of wild lands every minute, when we’re already suffering the impacts of climate change and when we waste so much of the energy we produce, faster is often not better. That’s certainly the case for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which is wrecking forests and streams all for the sake of piping highly potent greenhouse gases into more communities, many in the state of Virginia, which committed to achieving 100 percent clean electricity by 2045.
“At Environment America, we believe a clean environment is not a byproduct of American prosperity. Rather, a clean environment is the necessary precondition for true prosperity. Congress should reject this legislation weakening NEPA and instead work to strengthen our core environmental protections.”
Matt Casale, U.S. PIRG’s environment campaigns director, released the following statement:
“This bill assumes that building more infrastructure is the goal. It’s not. To ensure clean air, safe drinking water and to tackle climate warming emissions, we don’t just need more infrastructure, we need the right infrastructure.
“To protect the public interest, we need to look before we leap on major infrastructure projects. NEPA has long been the law that required us to look, and now is not the time to blindfold ourselves. Even worse, this bill puts a thumb on the scale in favor of fossil fuel projects. We’re already seeing some of the devastating impacts of climate change and we know that to avoid the worst, we need to phase out use of fossil fuels entirely. So why would we change the law to expedite them now?
“It should be simple. When we’re proposing projects in people’s communities that will impact their health, environment and livelihoods, those people should have a seat at the table and a say in what gets built.”