Joe Manchin’s Dirty Fossil Fuel Permitting Legislation a Bad Deal for Communities
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Proposed legislation would alter laws governing permitting for the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, undermining long standing environmental protections. The bill, which has been proposed by U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D -W.V.), also would undermine the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires the government to study the impacts to the environment of any highways, pipelines, or other major federal projects. The latest legislative language is largely unchanged from the original draft which bore American Petroleum Institute’s name on the document.
In response, Robert Weissman, president at Public Citizen, issued the following response:
“Manchin’s dirty pipeline deal would weaken safeguards to appease Big Oil while stifling the voices of the people most harmed by dirty energy projects. Ripping up environmental safeguards to build an unnecessary pipeline through vulnerable communities is rank environmental injustice.
“Communities across the country can ill afford to let greedy fossil fuel executives undermine the few protections in place to stop unnecessary and dirty projects like this one from moving forward. The world cannot afford for the United States to deepen its reliance on fossil fuels at a time when the climate crisis demands a rapid shift to a clean energy future.
“Congress must step up and defend our communities by rejecting Manchin’s dirty deal.”