On Friday, hundreds a environmental and community organizations called on President Joe Biden (D-New York), and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer(D-New York), to reject any provisions that would support or expand fossil fuel projects in the new reconciliation bill. On Wednesday, Democrats announced that they had made a decision..
In a letter signed by 369 organizations, the groups said that expanding fossil fuels’ grip over the energy sector is unacceptable as the world hurtles toward worse and worse climate crises. They went on to say that Biden, Schumer and Democrats have a mandate not only to reject proposals that are friendly to the fossil fuel industry in the new bill — dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — but also to take further action to wind down fossil fuel exploration in the U.S.
“Oil, gas and coal production are the core drivers of the climate and extinction crises,” the letter reads. “There can be no new fossil fuel leases, exports, or infrastructure if we have any hope of preventing ever-worsening climate crises, catastrophic floods, deadly wildfires, and more — all of which are ripping across the country as we speak. We are out of time.”
The groups want Biden to reject The Mountain Valley PipelineReject Any new leasingPublic lands for fossil fuel projects. They also join a chorus of voicesBiden should declare a climate emergency immediately to free up resources for the Biden administration to address climate crisis.
Letter signers included major climate and progressive organizations like the Center for Biological Diversity, Food & Water Watch, Indigenous Environmental Network, Our Revolution and Sunrise Movement.
They say that continuing to permit new fossil fuel projects is essentially sacrificing marginalized communities in the name of Big Oil’s profit. This would “further entrench us in a fossil fuel economy for decades to come — and constitutes a violent betrayal of your pledge to combat environmental racism and destruction,” they said.
Activists also stated that while the reconciliation bill contains some admirable provisions, its fossil fuel-friendly provisions defeat the purpose of the clean energy proposals.
“The Inflation Reduction Act may be the most Washington can offer right now, but it’s a far cry from what’s actually needed to address the climate crisis,” said Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, in a statement. “The investments in renewables, energy efficiency and Superfund clean-ups will make a difference, but communities and the climate continue to be sacrificed to Sen. [Joe] Manchin’s fossil fuel demands.”
On Wednesday, Sen. Joe Manchin (D–West Virginia), a multimillionaire coal miner, will be speaking. AnnouncementHe had reached an agreement to work with Schumer on a reconciliation bill that can be passed by the Senate with a simple majority vote. Democrats touted the bill’s inclusion of $369 billion in spending for climate and energy proposals, which they say will reduce emissions by 40 percent of 2005 levels by 2030; this would fall short of Biden’s goal of reducing emissions by half by the end of the decade, but still Reduce emissions than the U.S.’s current path.
However, buried in the over 700-page bill are what the Center for Biological Diversity called “poison pills” that favor the fossil fuel industry — including a provision That locksThe government should allow new drilling projects off the coast of Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico for the next ten years.
The bill includes a provision that Manchin may have added to appease him. It requires the Interior Department to offer at most 2 million acres of public land and 60 million acres offshore each year if it wishes to approve new wind or solar power projects on federal land. Climate advocates sayThis amount of leasing would ensure that the fossil fuel industry continues to operate as usual, with virtually no effort to extract oil and gas.
Because of these Big Oil-friendly proposals, the fossil fuel industry isn’t opposed to the bill, as it was with last year’s Build Back Better Act. In fact, quite the opposite — Politico reported on Thursday that the bill has “easter eggs” that “delight” the oil and gas industry, saying that it contains plenty of items that would benefit oil corporations, some of which posted record profitsFriday
Climate activists have harshly criticized these provisions, furious about the fossil fuel provisions hidden in what is being marketed as a climate law.
“This is a climate suicide pact,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director for the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. “It’s self-defeating to handcuff renewable energy development to massive new oil and gas extraction. The new leasing required in this bill will fan the flames of the climate disasters torching our country, and it’s a slap in the face to the communities fighting to protect themselves from filthy fossil fuels.”
