{"id":3689,"date":"2026-10-20T22:43:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T02:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3689"},"modified":"2026-10-20T22:43:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T02:43:41","slug":"democrats-abandon-environmental-laws-to-advance-pro-fossil-fuel-permitting-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3689","title":{"rendered":"Democrats Abandon Environmental Laws to Advance Pro-Fossil Fuel \u2018Permitting Reform\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sens. Martin Heinrich and Sheldon Whitehouse today released a top-line summary<\/a> of an agreement with Sen. Shelly Moore Capito and Rep. Bruce Westerman to advance so-called \u201cpermitting reform.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legislative package, cynically titled the \u201cBipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026,\u201d would provide massive long-term structural advantages to the fossil fuel industry and minimal short-term improvements to electricity transmission policy that might marginally benefit renewable energy. The legislation fails to meaningfully curb the accelerating build-out of data centers and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a climate kill shot that condemns our most vulnerable communities to suffer decades more fossil fuel pollution. It\u2019s absurd to ensure our planet chokes with greenhouse gases, gut endangered species protections and eviscerate the Clean Water Act for what seems to be a nearly meaningless victory against Trump\u2019s war on offshore wind,\u201d said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. \u201cThe minor benefits for renewable energy corporations are massively dwarfed by the gifts to the fossil fuel industry. If this grotesque legislation becomes law, the paltry increases in renewable energy will be instantly devoured by AI data centers. The only winners here are Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, tech oligarchs and the shareholders of fossil fuel companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s package contains numerous provisions that lock in thousands of fossil fuel projects, including oil and gas pipelines, LNG export terminals, and expanded fossil fuel drilling onshore and offshore approved by President Trump over the past two years. It also ensures that future fossil fuel pipelines and methane gas-generated electricity can never be challenged in court.<\/p>\n

Additional provisions gut parts of the Clean Water Act, including the Section 401 authority of states to protect their rivers and streams from the impacts of building pipelines and the EPA\u2019s Section 404(c) permit veto authority, which has been used to stop projects like the Pebble Mine in Alaska.<\/p>\n

The legislation weakens the National Historic Preservation Act and Tribal consultations, leaving most Tribal nations with no meaningful way to protect their sovereignty when faced with potential fossil fuel projects on their lands.<\/p>\n

In addition, the legislation guts the Endangered Species Act by allowing states to take over the Section 7 consultation process with minimal safeguards, turning one of the law\u2019s strongest provisions into a state-run rubberstamp of dangerous projects. The deal also likely includes redefining the \u201cbest available science\u201d and exempts the vast majority of damaging fossil fuel projects from any meaningful review of the threats and harms to imperiled wildlife and plants.<\/p>\n

The legislation curtails the ability of individuals, nonprofits and communities to challenge fossil fuel projects by requiring courts to tip the scales in favor of the fossil fuel industry and making it impossible to bring an environmental justice claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo Senate Democrats are giving away our most cherished environmental laws based on fantastical models that project a renewable energy utopia. They\u2019re rewarding a ruthless fossil fuel industry that will always put its quarterly profits ahead of a livable planet and future generations,\u201d said Hartl. \u201cTrump promised fossil fuel companies that he\u2019d do everything in his power to assist them in his second term, and Sen. Heinrich and Sen. Whitehouse seem hellbent on helping Trump fulfill that promise. We\u2019ll fight this disgraceful legislation to make sure it doesn\u2019t become law.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sens. Martin Heinrich and Sheldon Whitehouse today released a top-line summary of an agreement with Sen. Shelly Moore Capito and Rep. Bruce Westerman to advance so-called \u201cpermitting reform.\u201d The legislative package, cynically titled the \u201cBipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026,\u201d would provide massive long-term structural advantages to the fossil fuel industry and minimal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[742],"class_list":["post-3689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ciencia-y-tecnologia","tag-vr-news-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}