Rep. Grijalva and 71 House Progressives Continue the Call to Keep "Dirty Permitting Deal" Out of Continuing Resolution

Following the Appalachian and Indigenous-led anti-Manchin 'dirty side deal' rally outside of the Capitol yesterday, Natural Resources Committee Chair Raul M. Grijalva and 71 other members of Congress picked up these calls in a letter sent to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer expressing strong opposition to including Senator Manchin's permitting reform legislation in this month's Continuing Resolution.

This side permitting legislation would severely weaken the governmental safeguards in place to prevent community and environmental harm from many types of deadly projects, and threatens to legislate extraordinary measures to attempt to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline, Senator Manchin's pet project.

"These destructive provisions will allow polluting manufacturing and energy

development projects to be rushed through before the families who are forced to live near them

are even aware of the plans," the letter reads.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline has faced major criticism over the years and was, up until Senator Manchin's intervention last month, deemed unlikely to ever be completed. A new report released by Oil Change International debunks three of the arguments that Senator Manchin has been using to promote the Mountain Valley Pipeline, showing that the project won't support US climate goals or help increase gas exports and debunking the idea that the Southeast needs more gas pipeline capacity.

"The Manchin dirty deal is more than a dirty deal and a give-away to the fossil fuel industry," said Maury Johnson, co-chair of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights Coalition, one of the groups that led yesterday's mobilization. "If it is passed it will decimate the environmental and social justice laws put into place over the several decades."

On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer pledged to add permitting reform legislation to a stopgap funding bill that would prevent a government shutdown, causing uproar from progressive lawmakers and activists.

"A half century of environmental law and public participation in the decisions impacting their communities hang in the balance because Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin made a dirty deal behind closed doors that would sacrifice frontline communities from the Bronx and Brooklyn, to Appalachia, and throughout Indian Country," said Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright, Director of Environmental Justice with New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

Organizers and lawmakers alike are pledging to keep up pressure on Congress over the coming weeks to try and stop Manchin's dirty deal.

"No more. Frontline communities have had enough. It is time that we combine our efforts and stand united to say no more dirty deals. We are not your sacrifice," said said Roishetta Ozane, Organizing Director-Healthy Gulf and Founder of The Vessel Project of Louisiana.