The GOP’s Permit Pity Party
Everything you need to know about the GOP’s push for toxic permitting reform
Good afternoon and welcome back to the Fossil Free Memo! Today we’re going to be covering a much talked about but little understood policy platform: permitting reform.
For months now, the Republican Party - and some of their Democratic counterparts - have been pushing to fast-track fossil fuel projects under the guise of “permitting reform.” The latest attempt was HR.1, dubbed the Polluters Over People Act by much of Congress.
We’d be the first to cheer for smart changes that speed up clean energy projects and transmission lines without gutting our environment laws or throwing communities under the bus, but this Dirty Deal is just the opposite.
Instead of prioritizing clean energy, the GOP is pushing a Big Oil wishlist, filled with rollbacks to environmental and public health regulations. The only thing this Dirty Deal will bring is more disasters like the Palestine, Ohio train derailment and Keystone pipeline spills.
After defeating toxic dirty permitting reform not once but twice, Republicans are back for round three of this Dirty Deal. Tomorrow, the Environment & Public Works committee is holding the first hearing on the latest attempt to jam through this Big Oil boondoggle.
Here’s everything you need to know before the hearing:
There’s Oil All Over Congress.
Big Oil has a lot of influence on Capitol Hill – and nowhere is it more evident than in the current push to fast track dangerous fossil fuel projects.
After announcing the record-shattering profits they made by gouging our families at the pump, Big Oil CEOs still shamelessly have their hands out for more – and their friends in Congress are scrambling to help.
A new memo has found that even American Clean Power, a trade association purporting to back renewable energy while simultaneously lobbying for toxic permitting reform, has their hands dirty, with dozens of new ties to the fossil fuel industry coming to light.
Don’t Fall For These Polluter Giveaways
Fossil fuel-funded Republicans are rolling out numerous bills that would gut long-standing safeguards that give our communities a say in whether dangerous fossil fuel projects can be built in our backyards. Getting the public out of the way makes things a little bit easier for Big Oil, but we pay the price in unhealthy air and water, endangered wildlife, and unstable, dangerous oil and gas projects in our neighborhoods.
These bills will hardly help expedite clean energy development, but they will give a major boost to Big Oil and gas CEOs. In fact, these proposals are straight out of the fossil fuel industry’s playbook. Rather than creating a runway for approving clean energy infrastructure, these bills are laden with fossil fuel giveaways.
Any concessions Democrats make to the House Republicans pushing this Big Oil wish-list will undermine climate action and their own commitments to the public. The American people are clear: they want Big Oil to be held accountable, not coddled.
We Can Build Abundant Clean Energy Without Handouts to Fossil Fuels
We need to take action to get job-creating, popular clean energy projects up and running faster, and we can do that without giving big polluters free rein to build dangerous and polluting projects wherever and whenever they want.
There is no place for the Dirty Deal in a clean energy transition. There are better ways to safely streamline clean energy infrastructure, some of which were already passed in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Climate champions should be standing up for common sense reforms that help build what we really need: environmentally safe renewable energy, not more dirty fossil fuels.
The compromises and sacrifices of a fossil-fuel-backed, GOP-led permitting reform bill are too great – real communities will be the ones to face the consequences while Big Oil executives cash out.
Make your voice heard - and uplift the voices of those on the frontlines of this permitting fight.
Ahead of tomorrow’s hearing, share this video, amplify this post, and use the tweets below and in this toolkit to demand Congress and President Biden shutdown another Dirty Deal.
“If Republicans get their way, we’re looking at a death sentence.” Sharon Lavigne of @risestjames is right. We cannot allow more fossil fuel projects to be fast tracked in the middle of a climate CRISIS. #PermittingReform
#PermittingReform refers to the GOP plan to fast track destructive fossil fuel projects. How is this acceptable on any level? To avoid climate catastrophe, @POTUS and Congress must say NO to LNG and new permits.
Let’s make sure the only party Republicans have is a pity party! No permitting reform, no Dirty Deals!
There are toxic chemicals throughout the process of harvesting, transporting, storing, refining and burning gas and oil. More permitting for more of this makes us all sicker and destroys our climate. Stop all new permits, until carbon dioxide and methane concentration in the atmosphere are consistently decreasing. This is what must happen for us to survive.