Like I said, full post is in the blog here with LOTS of footnotes and references. But here's the gist of my argument.
There are three lies that are essential to the dirty deal and permitting reform efforts:
Lie #1 is that America used to know how to build things. But if we look at the history of America — particularly American infrastructure from highways to utility wires, to the internet — the truth is that it used to permit a lot more overtly racist, extractive, colonial, and dangerous projects.
The question we should ask is: How can we build lots of new, wonderful things, that people will actually want and need?
Lie #2 is that environmental laws and environmentalists are the reason we don't build things any more. We look at what's actually holding up construction of clean energy projects right now, and at construction of big power lines to move that energy between states and regions. We found a lot of lies and misinformation, but the real thing holding up those kind of projects isn't environmental laws like NEPA or the Clean Water Act - it's the same fossil fuel and utility companies that are building gas pipelines, fossil fuel power plants, and false solutions like carbon capture and hydrogen refineries.
Environmental laws, and environmental justice groups suing under them, are blocking some fossil fuel projects - as we've seen in the fights against KXL, DAPL, Line 3, line 5, the ACP and the MVP - to name just a few. But those methods aren't always effective, as you can also tell from the fact that only two of those above 5 projects have actually been stopped.
That the big utility companies who are refusing to build clean energy, grid interconnections, and big inter-state power lines are united with the fossil fuel industry that builds pipelines and refineries, in calling for permitting reform should be a warning sign that this is a dangerous idea. Instead, too many politicians take it as a license to support the same dirty companies, hurting the same vulnerable EJ communities.
Lie #3 is that the only way to meet our climate and clean energy goals is through permitting reform to make it faster and easier to build stuff. There are two main reasons, in my opinion:
First, two big laws passed last year — the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — both contained tradeoffs between clean energy and fossil fuels. Some were explicit - you only get clean energy if you also permit fossil fuels. Others are a little more insidious and just taking shape: Like incentives that make it cheaper to build fossil fuel power plants with theoretical carbon capture technology, than to just build clean energy like solar and wind power, are a good example.
Second, it's always been about power, and I don't mean electricity. Those two big laws, the BIL and IRA, were mostly about spending money. But most of the money they spend is going to people who already have a lot of money and power - specifically fossil fuel and utility companies. We talk about several specific consequences of the IRA and BIL that are leading to more pollution, in the exact same EJ communities most at risk from climate impacts, and costing taxpayers, ratepayers, and consumers a ton of money in the process. Again, check it all out in the blog, we've got sources, charts, and graphs to back all this up.
The good news is, we both know how to build the energy economy we want, and can prove that it's actually easier, cheaper and faster than what we're doing now. But we need to act fast.
Congress is about to go on their 4th of July recess. When they get back Joe Manchin has promised to bring back his dirty permitting reform bill, with a goal of sending a bill to the US Senate floor before August. Other members of Congress have also proposed versions of permitting reform that focus just on clean energy, on FERC reform, and more.
That's the conversation we need to encourage right now so that when Manchin's bill comes up, there are lots of amendments and debate, and not another dirty deal. Before Congress adjourns on Friday, can you sign our petition asking Congress to do permitting reform right?
We also have some other suggested next steps in the blog post like: Reforming the process to specifically address, rather than redact, environmental justice (as the EJ4All Act does); Pushing existing agencies to follow the law and actually evaluate the climate and environmental justice impacts of projects they review; and re-making the permitting institutions and agencies into places that build things people want and need, instead of things that give corporations and the ruling class permission to take from us, pollute us, and ultimately kill us all with climate chaos. Check it all out after you sign the petition.
Thanks for taking action,
Drew and the 198 lies debunked about the America never was, but will be, if we make it so.
