U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is threatening to vote no on a resolution to fund the federal government due to an expected provision that would streamline the permitting process for domestic energy projects, including oil and gas pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure.
If the stopgap funding bill is not passed by Sept. 30, the federal government would shut down.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., pledged to include the provision in the spending package in order to win the support of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., for the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law in August. That measure will invest $369 billion in the fight against climate change.
Included in what Sanders called the “side deal” is congressional approval of a 303-mile natural gas pipeline planned to stretch from West Virginia to Virginia, and potentially to North Carolina.
Sanders this week said the deal “would make it easier for the fossil fuel industry to receive permits to complete some of the dirtiest and most polluting oil and gas projects in America.” Manchin contends that the permit reforms would also speed up permit processes for renewable energy projects.
On the Senate floor Thursday, Sanders gave a 20-minute speech describing the impacts of climate change and railing against Manchin and Senate leaders for striking the closed-door permit deal.
“We know that if we don’t rapidly transform our energy system away from fossil fuels, toward energy efficiency and renewable energy, the situation will only become much worse and our planet will face irreparable and irreversible harm. That’s the simple reality,” Sanders said. “And yet, given all that we know, given all that the scientists are telling us, what is the United States Congress about to do? Well, Mr. President, the United States Congress is seriously considering legislation to provide a huge giveaway to the fossil fuel industry, to drill, produce and sell more oil and gas.”
“Really,” he continued, “at a time when climate change is threatening the very existence of our planet, why would anybody be talking about substantially increasing carbon emissions and expanding fossil fuel production in the United States?”
Asked by reporters on Capitol Hill after his floor speech whether he would vote no on government funding with the Manchin deal attached, Sanders answered, “Yes. You’re talking about the future for the planet,” according to ABC News.
Sanders is not alone in his opposition: On Friday, 72 U.S. House members sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., urging them to remove the permit language.
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., the state’s sole member of the U.S. House, was not among them.
The members said the provision would weaken environmental review processes that “are among the only tools local communities have to force careful review of federal projects that may have serious, long-term, environmental, and public health consequences in those communities.”
“The inclusion of these provisions in a continuing resolution, or any other must-pass legislation, would silence the voices of frontline and environmental justice communities by insulating them from scrutiny,” the 72 House members wrote. “Such a move would force Members to choose between protecting (environmental justice) communities from further pollution or funding the government. We urge you to ensure that these provisions are kept out of a continuing resolution or any other must-pass legislation this year.”
