Trouble reading this email? Click here to view it online.

We warned you a while ago about Manchin's dirty side deal to expedite permitting for fossil fuel pipelines and other projects – and now it’s time to act.

If passed, Manchin's dirty deal would gut bedrock environmental protections, threaten tribal authority, endanger public health, cut public input, fast-track fossil fuel projects, and mandate completion of Manchin's pet project, the Mountain Valley Pipeline. We can’t allow any more communities to be sacrificed for fossil fuel buildout and climate disaster!

Join us in action to make our voices clear: We are not your sacrifice zones! #StopMVP and stop Manchin's dirty deal!

• If you can, RSVP here to join frontline leaders at a rally on Sept 8th outside the U.S. Capitol to demand that our U.S. Senators and Representatives stop Manchin's dirty deal.
• If you can't join us, click here to send a letter to your member of Congress telling them to oppose Manchin's dirty deal – we'll follow up in a few days with additional actions you can take from or closer to home.

As part of a secret, back-room deal to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, Senators Manchin and Schumer have promised to pass a piece of legislation that would fast-track approvals for dangerous fossil fuel projects in September. Manchin calls it permitting reform. We call it a dirty deal.

Manchin's philosophy is an extension of what we've for years called "patriotic hydrocarbons delusion." It's the fallacy that if fossil fuels are "made in America" they are inherently better, cleaner, and safer than any other kind of energy from anywhere else. Therefore, if a pipeline, export terminal, or compressor station is transporting those "patriotic hydrocarbons" not only can it get built, it must be built – as a matter of national security. You might remember that this was a cornerstone of what Trump called "American energy dominance."

You might think that because agencies like FERC and the Army Corps already say yes to almost 100% of projects that apply for permits, Manchin's dirty deal will not make a lot of difference – and might even help some marginally useful things like new power lines get built.

But if that's what you think or have heard, you're missing the point. Manchin's dirty deal doesn't make the process faster or simpler – it makes it impossible for the climate movement to win a court case that stops pipelines, extraction, or fossil fuels.

No one has seen the official legislation yet, but the one-page summary of the deal that was leaked is a disaster – it guts bedrock environmental protections, endangers public health, fast-tracks fossil fuels, and mandates completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. A draft of the legislation even bears a watermark from the American Petroleum Institute!

This is a dirty deal written by and for the fossil fuel industry. Fortunately, Congressional resistance is building. But if Manchin and Schumer attach their dirty deal to a must-pass government spending bill this September, it will be harder to fight. So now is the time to take action.

We need Members of Congress to pledge right now to block any efforts to dish out new fossil fuel handouts. Protecting our communities and climate is more important than giving Senator Manchin another present to take back to his fossil fuel industry donors.

Stop Manchin’s dirty deal! RSVP here, or click here to send a letter to your Senators and member of Congress now!

Yours in struggle,

Drew and the 198 ways to fight American fossil fueled fascism crew

Sources:

1. https://www.198methods.org/2022/08/01/why-im-suspicious-of-the-machin-schumer-compromise-and-what-we-do-about-it/
2. https://www.198methods.org/2020/03/03/investigate-rick-perry/
3. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/us/freedom-gas-energy-department.html
4. https://twitter.com/CJAOurPower/status/1562925679070613504
5. https://about.bgov.com/news/manchin-side-deal-text-lacks-mention-of-mountain-valley-pipeline/
6. https://prospect.org/environment/manchin-permitting-deal-teeters-despite-gas-industry-support/

You're receiving this email because you're awesome, and/or subscribed via our website or one of the many joint actions we run with partners.

198 methods is an experiment in melding online and direct action styles of organizing, with an emphasis on developing new projects and partners. You can learn more about us at our website, www.198methods.org