Don’t Trade Our Environment for Permitting Reform

America needs to build clean energy faster. But we should not have to sacrifice endangered wildlife, clean water, and bedrock environmental protections to do it.

A sweeping new Senate permitting bill is being promoted as a way to speed construction of energy and infrastructure projects, including renewable energy and transmission.

But buried in its hundreds of pages are major changes to some of America's most important environmental laws — including the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and National Environmental Policy Act.

That is a dangerous and unacceptable bargain.

The climate and biodiversity crises are deeply connected. Climate change is already pushing wildlife and ecosystems toward the brink, while healthy forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems store carbon and make communities more resilient to climate impacts.

We will not solve one environmental crisis by making another worse.

The Senate's permitting bill would make significant changes to Endangered Species Act protections, including allowing states to assume responsibility for federal consultations intended to prevent government-approved projects from jeopardizing endangered species. It would also shorten consultation timelines and write a new definition into law for the Act's crucial "best scientific and commercial data available" standard.

Wild animals do not recognize state lines. Wolves, salmon, monarch butterflies, whooping cranes, and countless other species move across political boundaries and depend on connected habitats for survival.

The bill also takes aim at clean water safeguards. It would restrict states' and Tribes' authority over water-quality certifications, require streamlined nationwide permitting for specified projects affecting less than two acres of covered waters, and restrict when EPA can use its authority to stop exceptionally damaging projects.

And it would sharply restrict courts' ability to halt projects based on violations of federal environmental-review requirements.

We can build the clean-energy infrastructure America needs without dismantling protections for the environment we're trying to save.

Please sign the petition urging the Senate to reject attacks on environmental laws in the American Affordability and Jobs Act and instead pursue permitting reform that speeds clean-energy development without sacrificing endangered wildlife, clean water, or bedrock environmental protections.

The petition to the U.S. Senate reads: Do not trade away America's environmental protections in the name of permitting reform. Reject the American Affordability and Jobs Act and instead pursue solutions that accelerate clean energy while protecting endangered species, clean water, wildlife habitat, and meaningful environmental review.