Weekend Amendment Fails to Address Fossil Fuel Giveaways in Senate Permitting Deal

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on revised permitting legislation this week, formally known as the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA). The bill would undermine core environmental laws while giving the fossil fuel industry more power, more access to public lands, and less accountability to communities. While the package includes provisions to speed up transmission line and renewable energy deployment, these could largely be accomplished under existing law and do not justify the substantial harms the new legislation would cause.

The Senate bill was largely crafted behind closed doors without meaningful input from environmental groups, scientific experts, Tribal governments, or the communities most impacted by fossil fuel pollution and climate impacts. Bill sponsors have rejected committee hearings or mark-ups and instead moved directly to a floor vote.

An amendment released Saturday improves the transmission provisions and permitting certainty language, but fails to address the fundamental imbalance of the legislation.

Below is a statement from David Watkins, director of government affairs for the Climate and Energy programs at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

"Voters sent Congress a clear message last week: reject the status quo driving high energy bills and record fossil fuel profits. The fossil fuel industry and its allies are profiting from our current energy system while minimizing competition from cheaper, cleaner alternatives. Instead of righting this imbalance, the Senate permitting deal will lock in fossil fuel projects now and for generations to come.

"If enacted as currently drafted, BAAJA would be the most significant legislative reversal in environmental and community protections in decades. To get bipartisan support for negligible reductions in emissions, this deal would convert compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and Clean Water Act into largely voluntary exercises.

"We know how to build out the cleaner, cheaper energy system our nation needs, and we have the technology to do it, we just need the will from policymakers. Senators should go back to the negotiating table, work with external stakeholders, and consider further, far more significant amendments to the bill. Last week's election results provide powerful new leverage to craft a much more balanced approach."