Earthjustice Action Responds to Manager’s Amendment for Senate Permitting Bill

Contact: Siham Zniber, szniber@earthjustice.org

Washington, DC – Earthjustice Action President Abigail Dillen issued the following statement in response to the managers’ amendment released over the weekend for the Bipartisan Affordability and American Jobs Act (BAAJA):

“We deeply appreciate the extraordinary work that has been done to create an excellent legislative package for transmission and grid reform. Building new transmission is a terribly urgent imperative. But it is not the only imperative over the next two years.

President Trump and his administration, led by Stephen Miller, will do everything in their power to bend the law to advance a dangerous and cruel agenda that Americans have resoundingly rejected. In the President’s own words, this bill “will codify” his agenda.  That is not what people in this historic election voted for.

The manager’s amendment does not fix the core problems that give credence to the President’s rhetoric: The bill would allow the President to rush through irreparably harmful projects, from detention centers to data centers on public lands to mining and drilling development in precious places like the Boundary Waters, Chaco Canyon, and the Arctic.  And the bill would still constrain any future president from repairing the damage.

Notwithstanding improvements, which we have identified in an analysis that we have provided to all Senate offices, the manager’s amendment does not provide fixes that honor Tribal sovereignty and restore basic protections for water, wetlands, and species.  We can and must build what we need without trading off the essentials.

BAAJA has focused many minds at once, and we now have the foundation for transformative energy legislation. Earthjustice Action is beyond committed to that effort, recognizing that it will entail compromise. We urge Senators to come back in the new year and give these reforms the attention they require.”