350.org on Senator Manchin’s Fossil Fuel Fast-Tracking Bill

By Jessel Thomas First Posted: Sep 21, 2022 10:33 PM EDT

Today Senator Joe Manchin is expected to release the text of his fossil fuel fast-tracking bill.

May Boeve, Executive Director of 350.org, made the following statement:

"Senator Manchin has taken more money from the fossil fuel industry than any other politician in D.C. - and his fossil fuel fast-tracking bill is a wish list for fossil fuel company executives. We won't be backed into a corner with deceptive political maneuvering which aims to ram his bill through as part of funding the government. Congress should take on Manchin's bill separately and stop putting our communities in the position of either having the government funded or having their livelihoods destroyed through fossil fuel permitting.

(Photo : 350.org)

Nothing about this fossil fuel fast-tracking bill helps communities who are already being devastated by the climate crisis. Manchin's side deal would gut bedrock environmental protections, threaten tribal authority, endanger public health, speed up fossil fuel projects, cut public input, and force approval for the disastrous Mountain Valley Pipeline that's been opposed by the community for years.

Our communities deserve more. We have an enormous opportunity with the Inflation Reduction Act to start investing in renewable energy and transitioning away from the very thing that is poisoning our climate and taking us closer and closer to a point of no return. At his press conference, Senator Manchin talked a big game about "energy independence" yet his bill only continues to lock us into fossil fuel addiction.

But as these last ditch efforts in support of the fossil fuel industry get made, our movement remains united for real solutions to the climate crisis. People will continue to fight permitting deals community by community until all fossil fuels are kept in the ground."