Monday’s report by Sen. Joe Manchin reveals details of a side deal that would reform permitting for energy projects. This would allow for final approval of Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would transport fracked gasoline through West Virginia. Environmentalists expressed grave concern Monday.
The agreement was reached as part of an effort to secure Manchin’s support for the Inflation Reduction Act, a proposed budget reconciliation bill that includes renewable energy investments, drug price reforms, and a number of giveawaysto the fossil fuel industry. Because its provisions go beyond the boundaries of reconciliation it must be passed as separate legislation.
According to a one-page summaryObtained by the Washington Post, the agreement in its current form “would set new two-year limits, or maximum timelines, for environmental reviews for ‘major’ projects,” a potentially massive victory for the fossil fuel industry that could also entail benefits for renewable energy production.
“It would also aim to streamline the government processes for deciding approvals for energy projects by centralizing decision-making with one lead agency,” the Post notes. “The bill would also attempt to clear the way for the approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which would transport Appalachian shale gas about 300 miles from West Virginia to Virginia. This pipeline is a key priority of Manchin’s.”
Specifically, the summary states the bill would require “relevant agencies” to “take all necessary actions to permit the construction and operation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and give the D.C. Circuit jurisdiction over any further litigation.”
As the New York Times notes, that move would take cases involving the pipeline away “from the Fourth District, where environmentalists had found success.”
The Mountain Valley Pipeline’s emissions impact, which has been ensnared in legal and regulatory issues over the years, would be significant at a moment when scientists warn that failure to quickly rein in carbon pollution could have devastating consequences for all life on Earth. One analysis estimatesThe completed pipeline would produce 89,526,651 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually, which is equivalent to 26 new coal-fired power stations or 19 million passenger cars.
The pipeline has been drawn forceful oppositionLocal and Indigenous communitiesThey are concerned that the project will cause water and land pollution and lead to more leakage. The pipeline’s current route would carry gas across around 1,000Its route from West Virginia to Virginia passes through streams and wetlands.
“It’s not a climate solution. It’s a climate bomb,” Jamie Henn, the director of Fossil Free Media, wroteIn a Twitter post Monday.
“Fast-tracking fossil fuel projects and industry boondoggles will just throw more fuel on the climate fire,” Henn added. “Democrats shouldn’t be sacrificing communities in the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline just to please a senator in the pocket of Big Oil.”
The Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 300-mile fracked gas pipeline, would produce the same CO2 emissions as 26 coal-fired power plants.
It’s not a climate solution. It’s a climate bomb. pic.twitter.com/Wf2pbvAZyO
— Jamie Henn (@jamieclimate) August 1, 2022
A formal timeline has not been established for a vote regarding the side deal. This would also limit legal challenges to energy project law. Manchin, an ally of the fossil fuel sector and the top recipient for oil and gas donations to Congress, suggested in a statementLast week, Democratic leaders pledged to advance legislation that reflects his priorities by the autumn.
According to the Times, which cited unnamed people familiar with the deal, it is likely that Democratic leaders will attempt to “insert the Mountain Valley Pipeline and permitting provisions into a must-pass piece of legislation, such as the bill that funds the federal government, to maximize its chances” of final approval despite anticipated backlash from progressive members.
In a statement late Monday, Earthjustice president Abigail Dillen warned that hacking away at regulatory processes for energy infrastructure “prioritizes polluting industries and fossil fuel interests over people who are dealing with prolonged exposure to toxic pollution.”
Climate organizations have been working since the Inflation Reduction Act text was published last week. grappling with the trade-offs in the bill and attempting to discern whether the good — historic investments and tax credits for renewable energy production — outweighs the bad, such as requirements for more oil and gas lease sales on public lands and waters.
“The world is on fire and Congress is attacking it with a squirt gun while giving Senator Manchin and fossil fuel executives more matches by fast-tracking oil and gas drilling and hydrogen boondoggles,” Earthworks policy director Lauren Pagel said Monday. “Drilling for oil and gas is no solution to the climate crisis.”
Experts have offered varying estimates for how much the Inflation Reduction Act’s passage would cut U.S. carbon emissions, with one analyst suggestingIn 2030, CO2 pollution could be reduced by 800,000,000 to 1 Billion tons.
Monday’s Dillen statement indicated that Earthjustice supports final passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. This bill could get a vote in Congress this week. But she made clear that the climate organization — one of many groups that have sued to block the Biden administration’s fossil fuel lease sales — will fight any “attempt to weaken bedrock environmental review laws when the time comes.”
“In the meantime,” Dillen added, “we must focus on what’s in front of us and get the critical climate and environmental justice investments in the Inflation Reduction Act passed. Our planet can’t wait.”
Lauren Pagel from Earthworks has commented on this story.
