House Bill a Giveaway for Polluters, Cuts Health Protections

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce released its bill text that would be part of a massive tax cut measure for billionaires. In addition to cuts to Medicaid, it contains an unprecedented slate of attacks on the environment and giveaways for the oil and gas industry.

The following is a statement from Alexandra Adams, chief policy advocacy officer at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):

“This measure is a direct assault on the health of the American people.

“While it slashes health coverage, it gives polluters free rein to foul the air and water. It guts key programs that protect kids from asthma, the elderly from lung and heart disease, and communities that have been inundated with deadly pollutants for decades.

“Cleaning up smog at ports, reducing the methane spewing from oil wells, and making aluminum smelting a cleaner process have all enjoyed broad bipartisan support. But now, the majority is acting with reckless abandon to try and destroy these efforts.

“And while it slashes much-needed support for clean energy and climate resilience, it would allow fossil fuel companies to pay to get their project approved. That’s not just wrong, it’s un-American.

“Congress should reject this radical bill that would harm the health and welfare of the American people.”

Background

As part of the process of developing the reconciliation bill, the House Energy and Commerce committee released its draft measure last night. Its numerous provisions related to the environment, clean energy and fossil fuel projects include:

• Repeals unobligated Inflation Reduction Act funds across a variety of programs helping frontline communities, supporting bipartisan emissions reduction grants, assisting state environmental work, and more.
• Rescinds funding to implement the bipartisan American Innovation and Manufacturing Act.
• Rescinds funding for transmission facilities and transmission siting at a time when the U.S. electric grid is in massive need of expansion to meet growing electric demand and maintain reliability.
• Rescinds funding dedicated to environmental review analyses, which would slow down those reviews.
• Allows companies to pay to get a rubber-stamp approval for cross-border pipelines like Keystone XL.
• Repeals the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's clean vehicle standards and the U.S. Department of Transportation's fuel-economy standards.
• Allows gas companies to pay $1 million to the federal government to deem their liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports in the public interest (and therefore authorize their export), whether or not these exports are actually in Americans' public interest.
• Allows gas companies to pay an additional fee for expedited permitting of pipelines and LNG infrastructure that would apply not only to federal permits but also would prohibit state and local governments from protecting their rivers, wetlands, and drinking water reservoirs.
• Effectively removes judicial review from gas permits by severely limiting who can sue over permits.
• Uses taxpayer money to compensate fossil fuel and nuclear companies for projects that do not move forward because they lose in court or are found ineligible for permits. Compensation does not apply to any clean energy projects.
• Repeals critical funds for monitoring, technical assistance, and reducing air pollution in schools.
• Claws back hundreds of millions of appropriated dollars in U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) energy efficiency, state and community energy programs, and other core DOE functions.
• Cuts funds to make American industrial manufacturing cleaner and more competitive.
• Slashes funding for communities to conduct air quality monitoring, address impacts of climate change and deadly pollution in their neighborhoods, and reduce air pollution in their homes.
• Strips funding for the purchase of zero-emission port equipment under the Clean Ports Program.