Following weeks of negotiations to avoid reaching the debt "ceiling" of federal spending, US leaders released a debt ceiling bill on Sunday that majorly limits environmental and social programs and fast-tracks the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. 

(Photo: 350.org)

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Jeff Ordower, 350.org's North America Director, responded:

"This debt ceiling bill is not only a threat to essential social programs and the people who depend on them, but also to our climate. It dramatically rolls back NEPA, strengthens protections for polluters, and greenlights the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Including the Mountain Valley Pipeline approval in the deal as a 'compromise'-which would ensure that Appalachia remains a sacrifice zone for many more decades-encapsulates how leaders determine that certain people and places are expendable for the sake of short-term profit.

While we're outraged and disappointed, we can't say we're surprised: the lives, livelihoods, and rights of frontline communities have been used as a sacrifice and bargaining chip again and again. Black, Native, and Brown communities have already been sacrificed more than enough. Biden and Congressional leaders will try to justify this by saying that politics is about deal-making, but deals that unnecessarily threaten lives and livelihoods, like cutting food assistance and forcing through the Mountain Valley Pipeline, are just too toxic to make. 350.org joins frontline partners and hundreds of other climate organizations in calling on Congress to pass a clean debt limit bill and finally put the needs of people and planet above polluters and profit." 

Note: 350.org can also facilitate introductions with spokespeople from the frontlines of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. 

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