Congress Must Reject Attempts to Gut Environmental Protections and Fast Track Fossil Fuel Infrastructure

Washington, DC – This afternoon, Senator Joe Manchin released the text of legislation that would overhaul federal permitting requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Clean Water Act.

Republicans, led by Senator Shelley Moore Capito, announced a similar bill last week. Both proposals would weaken NEPA protections, limit opportunities for public input on proposed infrastructure projects, and waive many federal environmental laws to allow for completion of the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline. 

Hundreds of frontline activists from Appalachia and across the country came together in Washington, DC this month to call on Congress to reject any attempts to weaken critical environmental safeguards.

In response, Sierra Club Deputy Legislative Director Mahyar Sorour released the following statement: 

“Democrats in Congress shouldn’t be fooled: Senator Manchin’s so-called ‘permitting reform’ bill isn’t needed to build more clean energy. Instead, it would allow fossil fuel companies to steamroll communities and fast-track their polluting projects, locking in more oil and gas development at a time when we must be doing the opposite in order to avert the worst of the climate crisis.

“Efforts to weaken NEPA and limit the public’s ability to weigh in on pipelines and other projects that would affect them would be devastating for our communities, especially in places like Appalachia and the Gulf South that have been treated as fossil fuel sacrifice zones for far too long. The Sierra Club will continue to fight back against any proposed legislation that would rubber-stamp the disastrous Mountain Valley Pipeline and other fossil fuel proposals.”