Dear Friend,

We have written to you before about a new Senate bill that would enact the worst environmental rollback in American history. If you have called your senators about it already, thank you so much. Now, even after midterm elections' blue wave, bill sponsors are working on Veterans Day to rush this through the Senate. The final vote is likely to take place THIS WEEK.

We need your help to call Senate offices today if possible and tell them to oppose the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA, S. 5653).

Call 877-796-1949 to be connected to your senators' offices. Call twice to be routed to your OTHER senator.

This awful bill, negotiated from a position of weakness by Democratic Sens. Heinrich and Whitehouse, would attack Tribal sovereignty and bedrock environmental laws including the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, National Historic Preservation Act, and National Environmental Policy Act. It would further endanger many sacred places across the West such as Greater Chaco and Bears Ears, as shown in this great storymap alongside other examples.

It would dramatically weaken your right to participate in the decisions that affect your community and the public lands and waters you love. It will do so to prioritize massive AI data centers and extractive development, from oil and gas fracking to large-scale logging of ancient forests. This bill is the fossil fuel and extractive industries’ dream. Corporate CEOs will reap the benefits, and the rest of us will be forced to clean up the mess. It would also allow the Trump administration to fast-track detention center construction, supercharging its out-of-control immigration agenda. Alarmingly, it has a strong chance of passing.

Here are the facts:

• Permitting delays are wildly exaggerated by deregulatory interests.
• Experts agree any delays that do exist are rooted in the chronic underfunding and under-staffing of federal agencies.
• Less than a quarter of a percent of NEPA decisions annually end up in court.
• Congress has already updated NEPA with deadlines that are meaningfully reducing permitting times.
• The prior administration made substantial improvements to permitting including much-needed resources that accelerated permitting timelines. The Trump administration took away those resources.
• The bill would effectively eliminate state and Tribal authority (see page 3) to impose conditions on federal licenses and permits under the Clean Water Act.
• The bill would also waive Endangered Species Act and National Historic Preservation Act compliance (see page 3) for reissued nationwide permits.

Democrats in particular must not—especially now that they will take control of Congress so soon—rush to surrender America’s bedrock community and environmental protections to the fossil fuel, AI data center, and extractive industries intent on looting public resources for profit without regard for the consequences to people, their communities, and our world.

Please take action today by calling your senators at 877-796-1949 and asking them to oppose the permitting reform bill. Call again to be routed to your other senator.

Read our statement on this issue here and our policy analysis here for more information.

Here is a sample script you can use to make your opposition known:

[Introduce yourself including with your affiliation]

I’m calling to express concern about the “permitting bill,” the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (S. 5653).

The bill includes transmission improvements to help build the clean energy future. But other provisions go too far by giving up protections for communities and the environment.

In summary, this bill would:

• Lock in permits for polluting fossil fuel, AI data center, and mining projects
• Weaken protections for endangered species
• Hollow out environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act
• Shut communities out of the courts
• Betray Tribal Nations and threaten sacred places
• Fuel plastic pollution by promoting the buildout of the petrochemical industry

Unfortunately, the updates to the bill in the managers' amendment did not alleviate any of these concerns.

I ask you to vote "no" on this bill including on all procedural votes.

Thank you for standing up for our environmental laws,

Erik Schlenker-Goodrich

Executive Director

Western Environmental Law Center is a nonprofit organization that uses the power of the law to foster thriving, resilient western lands, waters, wildlife, and communities in the face of a changing climate.

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