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dirty deal
Progressives Rip Effort to Insert Dirty Deal Into Debt Ceiling Hostage Agreement
"These dangerous and dirty permitting deals are a matter of life and death for millions of people across our country who are already overburdened by decades of fossil fuel pollution," warned one campaigner.
May 25, 2023
Climate action advocates responded with outraged alarm Thursday to reporting that U.S. President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans may try to strike a "dirty deal" on permitting reforms as part of an agreement to raise the debt ceiling.
The deliberations continue as fears of an economically catastrophic default are growing, with just a week until the U.S. government could run out of money to pay its bills if Congress doesn't increase the debt limit, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
"We should not be throwing people and the planet under a gas-guzzling bus just so that polluters can more easily build destructive projects."
Citing two unnamed sources close to the talks, The Washington Post reported:
The emerging deal would ease the process of building the interstate transmission lines needed to carry clean electricity across the country—a top priority for Democrats and a boon for President Biden's climate agenda, said the two individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private negotiations.
To sweeten the deal for Republicans, the agreement would make modest changes to the National Environmental Policy Act, a 1970 law that requires the federal government to analyze the environmental impact of its proposed actions. GOP lawmakers have long blamed the bedrock environmental law for the yearslong delays that plague new highways, pipelines, and other infrastructure projects nationwide.
The transmission policy would be based on the forthcoming Building Integrated Grids With Inter-Regional Energy Supply (BIG WIRES) Act from Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) and Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), the newspaper noted, adding that the agreement "would include only incremental changes" sought by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and fellow Republicans.
House Republicans notably included H.R. 1—their fossil fuel-friendly energy package—in the so-called Limit, Save, Grow Act, the "debt ceiling scam" the GOP passed last month and which established the party's priorities for the ongoing negotiations.
In response to the Post's reporting, Friends of the Earth government and political affairs director Ariel Moger said that "once again, lawmakers are expected to make the unconscionable decision to tack unpopular and environmentally harmful policies onto a must-pass bill. This deal will put communities already suffering from environmental racism at further risk by gutting essential laws."
"We should not be throwing people and the planet under a gas-guzzling bus just so that polluters can more easily build destructive projects," Moger argued. "Biden and congressional Democrats should stand up for environmental justice, reject this dirty deal, and pass a clean debt limit increase."
\u201cWe all know that we need to make the transition to clean energy as quickly as possible, but @POTUS is reportedly considering a #DirtyDeal that would lock in more fossil fuels. Keep fossil fuel handouts out of the debt ceiling deal! https://t.co/vCr7JgmqKW\u201d— Sierra Club (@Sierra Club) 1685042165
Oil Change International U.S. program co-manager Allie Rosenbluth stressed that "these dangerous and dirty permitting deals are a matter of life and death for millions of people across our country who are already overburdened by decades of fossil fuel pollution, the impacts of climate change, and compromised public health."
"The increased exposure to oil spills, gas leaks, air pollution, and water contamination would exacerbate existing environmental injustices and the climate crisis," Rosenbluth continued. "We must draw a red line and say no to Republicans taking our economy hostage to line the pockets of the fossil fuel industry."
“President Biden must enforce a clean debt ceiling package that does not allow for any rollbacks to National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or other bedrock environmental laws," she added. "While his recent climate track record has been nothing short of disastrous, it is not too late for him to turn it around and hold true to his environmental justice campaign promises."
The Biden administration has recently come under fire for backing ConocoPhillips' Willow oil project and a liquified natural gas (LNG) proposal, both in Alaska, as well as the incomplete Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) in Virginia and West Virginia.
\u201cWe need to do everything we can RIGHT NOW to stop a debt ceiling deal from including dirty permitting reforms that fast track fossil fuels. \n\n@StopBigOil just released this ad targeting key decision makers. Please share and tag your member of Congress!\u201d— Jamie Henn (@Jamie Henn) 1685037069
The MVP is a longtime priority of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a "coal baron" and recipient of fossil fuel industry campaign cash who only supported the Inflation Reduction Act last year in exchange for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) agreeing to push through permitting reforms friendly to the coal, gas, and oil companies.
Although opposition from frontline communities and progressives in Congress blocked versions of Manchin's "dirty deal" three times last year, he has since renewed his effort, introducing the Building American Energy Security Act—which calls for completing the MVP—earlier this month. A Biden aide said the White House backs the bill.
House Natural Resources Committee Democrats and the League of Conservation Voters highlighted Thursday that 83 lawmakers have signed a letter urging Biden, Schumer, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) "to oppose ongoing attempts to attach H.R. 1 or any other extreme proposals that gut our bedrock environmental and public laws to must-pass legislation."
\u201c#ThrowbackThursday to yesterday when 83 Democrats sent a letter to @POTUS, @SenSchumer & @RepJeffries opposing the #DirtyDeal.\n\nAs @RepRaulGrijalva said, "Our environment and health are not the GOP\u2019s bargaining chips."\u201d— Natural Resources Democrats (@Natural Resources Democrats) 1685032817
The panel's ranking member, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), led the letter and congressional opposition to last year's dirty deals.
"The growing list of my Democratic colleagues and I couldn't be more clear: Our environment and health are not the GOP's bargaining chips," Grijalva said in a statement Wednesday. "Gutting our bedrock environmental laws isn't permitting reform—it's a polluter payout. Speaker McCarthy and his extremist faction need to end this reckless scheme to force their MAGA-manufactured, polluters-over-people agenda on the American people now."
Though Jeffries is on the receiving end of the letter, he made clear Thursday that his caucus won't automatically support a Biden-backed deal, telling reporters that "it's a miscalculation to assume that simply any agreement that House Republicans are able to reach will, by definition, trigger a sufficient number of Democratic votes—if that agreement undermines our values."
\u201c\ud83d\udca1Research should inform permitting reform!\ud83d\udca1Find out what the *data* says about NEPA reviews and causes for delay: https://t.co/3yP63ck9qY\u201d— Kristina Karlsson (@Kristina Karlsson) 1685024109
Meanwhile, the Roosevelt Institute this week published an issue brief by Jamie Pleune, associate professor of law at the University of Utah, debunking the claim that reviews required by NEPA are hampering the transition to renewable energy.
"After examining 41,000 NEPA decisions conducted by the Forest Service over 16 years, we found limited correlation between the intensity of the NEPA process in question and the existence of delays," said Pleune. "Furthermore, some projects that were eligible for expedited analyses encountered delays, while some intensely studied projects were completed quickly. This indicated that the true causes of delay were external to the regulatory requirements of NEPA."
"Reducing analytical rigor or weakening environmental standards, which are some of the permitting reforms on the table in debt ceiling talks, won't address the true blockages to the buildout of renewables," she added. "In my brief, I provide progressive permitting reform, with demonstrated effectiveness, that will strengthen and improve NEPA processes while preserving community engagement and environmental protections."
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It Is Time to Kill the ‘Dirty Deal’ Once and For All
Senator Joe Manchin and others in government are using the current push for “permitting reform” as a full-scale political attack on bedrock environmental laws.
May 17, 2023
Here we go again! Last year my Senator, Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) introduced his “Dirty Deal Bill” to placate his fossil fuel friends and funders. This bill would gut the National Environment Policy Act (NEPA) and silence most citizens who oppose any fossil fuel project, especially the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) that travels across my farm, near my home in southern West Virginia. His bill is also championed by some House Republicans who passed H.R. 1 at the end of March of this year.
Both of these bills are just shameless giveaways that contain blatant handouts and loopholes for the oil, gas, and mining industries. H.R.1 was fittingly renamed the Polluters Over People Act by those of us that believe we need to protect our environment. While oil companies’ record-breaking profits make it clear that they’re not an industry that needs any government assistance, Manchin, Republicans, and a few others like Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and President Joe Biden continue to push legislation to gut our most fundamental environmental and public health laws, namely the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), legislation that will only lock us in to another generation of unnecessary fossil fuel dependency and line the pockets of industry CEOs.
Do not be fooled by industry talking points that use innocent sounding words like “streamlining,” “modernizing,” “energy independence,” or the latest popular catch phrase—“permitting reform.” This is just a ploy to pull the wool over the American people’s eyes and push through their climate disaster ideas with legislation like the “Dirty Deal” and the “Polluters Over People Act.”
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we must rapidly transition to clean energy. Building that infrastructure quickly should be a priority, but not at the expense of already vulnerable communities.
Permitting reform may be needed, but not their brand of reform. What is needed is permitting reform like the recently introduced A. Donald McEachin Environmental Justice for All Act.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we must rapidly transition to clean energy. Building that infrastructure quickly should be a priority, but not at the expense of already vulnerable communities. The A. Donald McEachin EJ Act would help make sure that this happens fairly for everyone concerned.
Unfortunately, Manchin and others in government are using the current push for “permitting reform” as a full-scale political attack on NEPA and other bedrock environmental laws. We have beaten back these attacks five times over the past several months, but it is now time to stop these attacks once and for all.
The Fossil Fuel industry and their friends in government will seize every possible opportunity to wage war on NEPA and other environmental and safety regulations. Their only concerns are their own profits, not the well-being of the impacted residents or communities. In fact, it does not appear that they care for much of anything except their bottom line. It is a fact that over the past 50 years Congress has passed these bedrock laws and policies with overwhelming bipartisan support, and now is not the time to roll them back. The American people demand a seat at the table in federal decision-making and should not be sacrificed for the profit of fossil fuel or other corporations.
Social justice is the act of giving each and everyone in a community equal opportunities and resources, scaling both the poor and the rich equally and bringing balance in almost every aspect of society. NEPA is currently the last line of defense that many social injustice communities have to protect themselves against life threatening pollution and other harms that many projects would subject them too.
If you agree with me and House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), who authored a new opinion piece for The Hill on NEPA and believe that our rights to protect ourselves from the greed and pollution of these uncaring corporations is an important issue, please let your senators and representatives in Congress know.
You can also join me in front of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission offices at 888 First Street NE in Washington D.C. on Thursday morning May 18 or on June 8 at the White House to let Biden and others know we don’t want the MVP or other unnecessary fossil fuel projects.
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151 Groups Blast Biden Admin for Backing 'Destructive' Mountain Valley Pipeline
"This project is not inevitable, and is completely counter to the overwhelming evidence that we must stop creating new fossil fuel infrastructure immediately."
May 04, 2023
A coalition of climate groups this week called out the Biden administration's support for the partially completed Mountain Valley Pipeline, highlighting how its ongoing construction and potential operation threaten "the well-being of people, endangered species, streams, rivers, farms, national forests, and the planet."
The letter, led by Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) and 7 Directions of Service and backed by 149 other organizations, is in response to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm writing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last month to reiterate the administration's position on the contested 303-mile fracked gas pipeline across Virginia and West Virginia.
"We are incredibly disappointed with your recent actions to promote the destructive and unneeded Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP)," the climate coalition wrote to Granholm, noting that her letter to FERC coincided with President Joe Biden signing an executive order to implement "environmental justice policy across the federal government."
"You should be supporting environmental justice as the bedrock of every new policy and piece of infrastructure, advocating for climate reparations, and aggressively promoting distributed, decentralized renewable energy and energy democracy."
After condemning the administration's endorsement of the pipeline and recent approvals of the Willow oil and Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects as "hypocritical betrayals," given Biden's campaign trail pledges, the coalition laid out how the MVP impacts "livelihoods, drinking water sources, property values, and important cultural resources," pointing to Indigenous cultural sites as well as communities of "low-income, elderly, and medically underserved populations" dependent on private wells.
MVP construction has involved over 500 violations of permit conditions, laws, and regulations, the letter emphasizes, and almost 75% of the route "slices through 'moderate-high' or 'high' landslide risk terrain."
The pipeline developer's website states that "MVP's total project work is nearly 94% complete, which includes 55.8% of the right-of-way fully restored." While proponents of the project often cite the former figure, letter signatories are drawing attention to the latter—and that completion would require complex construction involving "incredibly complex and fragile" water crossings.
\u201cRead up! Hundreds of organizations sent @SecGranholm a letter today \u2935\ufe0f #StopMVP\u201d— People vs. Fossil Fuels (@People vs. Fossil Fuels) 1683222267
"The MVP, its greedy political backers, and some journalists continue to claim that the project is nearly complete despite the company's own repeated reports that it is just over half complete with some of the hardest construction yet to come, including hundreds of stream crossings," POWHR managing director Russell Chisholm told Common Dreams.
"This disinformation is not only an insult to frontline communities monitoring and enduring the unfinished pipeline's construction, but it furthers the risk of another planet-killing fossil fuel pipeline built during a climate crisis... on a planet that we all live on," Chisholm added. "Shame on all people in power who tout this falsehood."
Released as climate scientists continue to stress the need for a swift global transition to renewable energy, the letter argues that "this project is not inevitable, and is completely counter to the overwhelming evidence that we must stop creating new fossil fuel infrastructure immediately."
Taking aim at claims in the energy secretary's letter, the coalition wrote:
Asking the commission to proceed "expeditiously" with any further action on the project and misstating the project's relation to "national security" while providing no evidence undermines the administration's commitment to advancing environmental justice. An economy tied to fossil fuels during a climate crisis is unpredictable and makes us vulnerable to foreign governments and the greed of corporate CEOs. This country's energy independence can only come from a swift and just renewable energy transition. This will help protect us from foreign supply chain disruptions and conflicts, as well as deliver lower costs to consumers. The MVP will not assist our allies in Europe, and nor is it needed in the Southeast as you claim. No matter where MVP's gas is intended to be delivered, sacrificing communities to free up gas to export overseas for corporate profit is not "national security." Building this project prolongs fracked gas buildout, accelerates LNG infrastructure buildout and export, and sacrifices communities, all of which are counter to the just future we deserve.
Your letter contains open appeals for dangerous distractions that will prop up the fossil fuel industry for decades to come. The dangerous distractions of carbon capture and hydrogen propagate the untrue belief that we can continue wholesale destruction of the earth, continue creating sacrifice zones, release millions of tons of greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel projects, and continue massive corporate capture of regulatory agencies while embarking on a just transition off of fossil fuels. Instead, you should be supporting environmental justice as the bedrock of every new policy and piece of infrastructure, advocating for climate reparations, and aggressively promoting distributed, decentralized renewable energy and energy democracy.
"Your letter states that MVP is part of the clean energy transition. In reality, MVP would exacerbate the very climate crisis that is causing an increasing number of extreme weather events," the organizations continued, referencing expert estimates that its "lifecycle would be comparable to the operation of 26 to 37 new coal-fired power plants."
"We request that you immediately rescind your letter of support for the project," the coalition concluded, "and that you meet with directly impacted communities as soon as possible who live on the route of the project, so you can gain an increased understanding of the destruction and danger that you are promoting."
The groups' letter comes as U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)—whose personal fortune and political campaigns are tied to fossil fuels—renews his push for a "dirty deal" on energy permitting reforms, despite three defeats last year. On Tuesday he introduced the Building American Energy Security Act, which calls for the completion of the MVP.
\u201cSen. Manchin's bill attempting to give #MountainValleyPipeline a special exemption from environmental law and judicial review is back. Resounding pressure from people like you helped to defeat this bill last year, and we WILL defeat it again! #StopMVP\n\nhttps://t.co/FVhwfGeYUx\u201d— Appalachian Voices (@Appalachian Voices) 1683044407
In a backroom deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) last summer, Manchin agreed to vote for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) if Democrats—who then controlled both chambers of Congress—subquently pushed through his permitting measure. Progressive lawmakers and grassroots opposition have so far blocked such efforts, but the House is now narrowly held by Republicans willing to serve Big Oil, and Manchin expressed confidence this week that he can advance a bipartisan bill.
Despite Manchin's recent votes to gut some of Biden's climate and environmental policies, the White House is backing his bill. "We supported it last year, we'll support it this year," John Podesta, who directs IRA implementation for the president, toldReutersTuesday. "It's a high priority for us to try to find a path forward on bipartisan, permanent reform."
Meanwhile, "dirty deal" critics remain committed to killing it. According to Chisholm, "Sen. Manchin is desperate to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline through federal shortcuts that circumvent normal regulatory and judicial processes because he knows our movement is growing stronger every day and we will stop the unnecessary, unwanted climate nightmare that is the MVP."
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