Today, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) sent the letter below to the House to oppose anti-environmental measures in House Republican leadership’s “Energy Week”. LCV will strongly consider including votes on these bills in the 2024 National Environmental Scorecard
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March 18, 2024

United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC20515

Re: Oppose anti-environmental measures in House Republican leadership’s “Energy Week”

Dear Representative,

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) believes that everyone has a right to clean air, clean water, public lands, and a safe climate protected by a just and equitable democracy. Each year, LCV publishes the National Environmental Scorecard, which details the voting records of members of Congress on environmental legislation. The Scorecard is distributed to LCV members, concerned voters nationwide, and the media.

The slate of extreme and harmful bills and resolutions being advanced by House Republican leadership prioritize polluters over people, threaten public health, and undermine climate action. These dangerous proposals seek to undo the progress the Biden-Harris administration has made on tackling the climate crisis and safeguarding our air, water, and lands. Rather than focusing on the critical task of keeping our government funded, House majority leaders are prioritizing a reckless agenda that could lead to new fossil fuel production, exacerbate the climate crisis, worsen environmental injustice, and increase toxic pollution that threatens our health. Therefore, LCV urges you to vote NO on H. Res. 987, H. Con. Res. 86, H.R. 1023, H.R. 1121, H.R. 6009, and H.R. 7023.

H. Res. 987 is a long list of attacks on progress the Biden-Harris administration has made to address the climate crisis, prioritize the needs and voices of frontline communities, protect our cultural and natural resources, and build a more just clean energy future. From the administration’s efforts to reassess whether new exports of liquefied natural gas adequately take into account impacts to communities and our climate, to protect America’s Arctic, to balancing conservation with extractive uses of our public lands, to protecting places from new mining and oil and gas drilling.

H. Con. Res. 86 is yet another example of the radical leadership in the House denying the need to act on climate change. This resolution fails to consider the harmful impacts unchecked climate change is already having on our families, our communities and our economy. Rather than messaging against taking climate action on behalf of the fossil fuel industry, we should be advancing clean energy policies and climate solutions that benefit all communities.

H.R. 1023 would repeal the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund which directly invests $27 billion — and leverages a much larger amount of private investment — in critical climate and clean energy projects across the country. This bill would also repeal the Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP), which cuts dangerous methane and other air pollutants from the oil and gas industry. These important provisions passed through the Inflation Reduction Act, and create good-paying jobs, tackle climate change, and clean up the air we breathe, especially in low income communities and communities of color who often live on the frontlines of oil and gas drilling.

H.R. 1121 would prohibit the President from declaring a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing unless Congress authorizes the moratorium. It is a solution in search of a problem since there is currently no moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing.

H.R. 6009 would undermine the process the Biden-Harris administration has undertaken to update the federal onshore oil and gas leasing program. These reforms were enshrined in the Inflation Reduction Act and would increase the royalty rate for producing oil and gas on public lands and institute other measures that protect taxpayers, public lands, and communities. This bill would undercut the Department of the Interior’s ability to effectively oversee the federal leasing program by preventing the department from undertaking any substantially similar rule.

H.R. 7023 contains several misguided attacks on clean water and the Clean Water Act and puts polluter profits ahead of the waters that our families, communities, and wildlife depend on. The legislation would undermine EPA’s process for permitting and updating water quality criteria; make it easier for polluters to dump pollutants like PFAS into our waters; eliminate EPA’s ability to stop the most devastating projects; fast-track permitting for destructive oil and gas pipelines; and severely limit judicial review and public input.

In a time when Congress should be prioritizing the federal spending bills and keeping the government open, House Republicans have chosen to help oil and gas CEOs advance their extreme agenda that is exacerbating the climate crisis and harming communities across the country and the world. It has never been so clear that Congress should be focused on speeding the transition to affordable and reliable clean energy solutions, not propping up the dirty fossil fuel industry.

For all these reasons, we strongly urge you to oppose this slate of bills and all anti-environmental amendments. We will strongly consider scoring votes on these pieces of legislation in the 2024 Scorecard. If you would like more information, please reach out to a member of our government relations team.

Sincerely,

Gene Karpinski
President