A Victory For and By the Frontlines
Washington, D.C. — Yesterday, Senator Chuck Schumer removed Senator Joe Manchin’s dirty energy permitting bill from the Continuing Resolution in the U.S. Senate. This victory is a result of the organizing and leadership of frontline impacted communities from Appalachia to the Gulf, and the Southwest to the Plains who mobilized to stop rollbacks of environmental protections in the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) and the fast-tracking of fossil fuel energy and false climate solutions, including the Mountain Valley Pipeline.
The fight to stop this bad deal is not over. Today, Senator Mitch McConnell signaled a turn to pursuing “bipartisan permitting reform” and Republicans are already preparing to attach a revamped version of the bill to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This would link these poisonous fossil fuel provisions to the NDAA’s continued expansion of the bloated U.S. military budget. Grassroots leaders will continue to resist the advance of militarized and fossil-fueled violence on our communities.
“The removal of Manchin’s dirty energy deal from the government spending package is a massive victory for frontline communities and environmental justice. This was possible because of the broad coalition of groups led by frontline grassroots leaders who lobbied, organized, and demonstrated to stop this harmful legislation,” said Cindy Wiesner, Executive Director of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance. “Yet the prospect of Manchin’s permitting proposal deal being revived in the National Defense Authorization Act would reaffirm the unholy union of fossil fueled-crisis and militarization. The U.S. military is already the world’s largest institutional polluter. Tying fossil fuel handouts to the defense bill spits in the face of frontline communities resisting pollution and militarized violence. We will continue to fight until this dirty deal is shut down.”
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