Conferees working on the Energy Policy Modernization Act on Tuesday received a letter from 13 environmental groups calling for a bill that supports environmental causes. “[W]e urge you to only report an energy bill if it will facilitate our nation’s transition to cleaner sources of energy and doesn’t have provisions that would further climate disruption or harm our air, water, wildlife, and other natural resources,” the groups wrote.
The bill, which started out in Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) Energy and Natural Resources Committee with strong bipartisan support, persevered through a lengthy battle on the floor of the upper chamber before heading to the House in April, where bipartisanship was quickly scrapped in favor of partisan amendments sure to draw a White House veto.
Those contentious issues concern the green groups. “The House-passed bill is littered with extreme ideological provisions that undermine many of our current protections including those secured under the Clean Air Act, the Equal Access to Justice Act, National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and other key laws,” the letter says.
Specific provisions the groups are unhappy with include provisions in the House bill that would: allow pipelines to be built on National Park land without the necessary environmental reviews, limit public involvement in energy projects on tribal lands, and weaken “environmental review for the hardrock mining industry and jeopardizes the water quality of nearby communities.”
The shift to the right in the lower chamber led negotiators in the Senate to dig in their heels, refusing to go to conference until the House negotiators had agreed to drop the controversial language. House Republicans in July agreed to support a final conference report that does not risk veto and days before leaving for the annual seven-week summer recess the Senate voted to go to conference.
The promise from the House seems to hold little water for the environmental groups. “[W]e remain concerned that even this more limited universe may include provisions that undermine the positive provisions of the bill or harm our environment, climate, and public health,” they wrote.
The bill aims to save energy, expand domestic energy supplies, enable infrastructure investment, protect the electric grid, boost energy trade, improve the performance of federal agencies, and renew effective conservation programs. The conference on the bill launched earlier this month.
The groups that sent the letter are: Alaska Wilderness League, American Rivers, Clean Water Action, Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, Environment America, League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oceana, Sierra Club, Southern Environmental Law Center, and The Wilderness Society.
