Ahead of tomorrow’s Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee markup on Senators Joe Manchin’s and John Barrasso’s permitting reform bill, the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024, Evergreen Action Vice President Craig Segall released the following statement:

“There is no need to rush to a bad compromise on permitting. True, we need real reforms in permitting new transmission and renewable energy to accelerate our clean energy transition. And this bill includes some important, common-sense measures that address transmission, including promising provisions regarding FERC interregional planning reforms and the backstop siting process. But the fossil fuel giveaways in this bill would counteract those benefits and inflict real harm on frontline communities. 

“Communities in the Gulf South are already being poisoned by liquified 'natural' gas export terminals. This bill would make it harder to fully consider the climate and environmental justice impacts of LNG export authorizations and threatens to fast-track fossil fuel mega-projects that would lock in decades of harmful climate pollution. The bill would also guarantee the fossil fuel industry hundreds of thousands of acres for oil and gas leasing each year—when experts are crystal clear that we cannot build any new fossil fuel infrastructure if we want to stand a chance of reaching our climate goals.

“The choices ahead deserve careful and measured consideration to avoid unintended consequences or a net increase in emissions. We need to center our vision on clean energy, community-led justice, and climate protection. This bill as it stands is not the right path to permitting reform and Democrats should not rush to wholesale sign on to a vision negotiated by two fossil fuel advocates.”

In December 2023, Evergreen published Warp Speed Clean Energy: Expediting Equitable Permitting and Grid Deployment Without Congress, presenting a path toward progress on permitting and transmission through executive actions and state policy.

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