The League of Conservation Voters led 20 environmental organizations in sending the below letter to the House of Representatives urging Members to oppose the following amendments to H.R. 8997, the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025, when they come up for votes. The League of Conservation Voters will strongly consider including votes related to these amendments in our 2024 National Environmental Scorecard.

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July 23, 2024

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

Re: Vote NO on Amendments to H.R. 8997, the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025

Dear Member of Congress,

On behalf of our many members and supporters, the 20 undersigned groups call on you to OPPOSE the following amendments to H.R. 8997, the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025. While not all undersigned organizations work directly on each of these issues, we appreciate your consideration of these pro-environmental positions.

Thank you for your consideration,

Alaska Wilderness League Action

Americans for Financial Reform

Chesapeake Climate Action Network Action Fund

Clean Water Action

Climate Action Campaign

Defenders of Wildlife

Earthjustice

Endangered Species Coalition

Green America

Interfaith Power & Light

League of Conservation Voters

National Wildlife Federation

Natural Resources Defense Council

Ocean Defense Initiative

Physicians for Social Responsibility

Plug In America

Sierra Club

The Conservation Angler

WE ACT for Environmental Justice

Western Watersheds Project

Vote NO

16. Greene (GA), 62. Van Drew (NJ) These amendments would eliminate funding for the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, a program that helps bridge the gap from Research & Development of advanced clean energy technologies to general market adoption.

18. Hageman (WY) DOE’s Industrial Decarbonization Roadmap outlines critical strategies for reducing emissions from the industrial sector, which accounts for almost a third of US greenhouse gas emissions.The technologies necessary to reach deeper levels of decarbonization are still in the early stages of development and deployment, and the federal government has an essential role to play in bringing these nascent technologies to maturity.

22. LaMalfa (CA) This amendment would prohibit funds from being used by the Department of Interior or its subagencies to pursue removal of Oregon’s Keno Dam, which is one of several dams located on the Klamath River. Since the dam’s construction, salmon and other wildlife populations have plummeted and water quality has been significantly degraded. Most of the wetlands in the Klamath’s headwaters that are critical for water quality and groundwater storage have since been eliminated.

35. Norman (SC) This amendment would command the federal government to blind itself to the economic costs of climate change. Weakening or eliminating the use of the social cost of carbon as a tool for federal agencies would ignore the sobering cost of health, environmental and economic impacts of extreme weather, rising temperatures, intensifying smog, and other impacts. These costs, which affect businesses, families, governments and taxpayers, could reach hundreds of billions of dollars through rising health care costs, destruction of property, increased food prices, and more.

36. Norman (SC) The American Climate Corps combines national service with workforce training to rally a new generation around the need to confront the climate crisis; it is building a versatile corps of 20,000 workers with the skills to help conserve and restore waters and lands, make our communities more resilient, speed the shift to clean energy and advance environmental justice. It is prioritizing underserved communities, including the energy communities that have powered the nation for generations, and helping meet the administration’s Justice40 goal.

37. Norman (SC) This amendment would effectively prohibit work updating official analysis on the costs of climate change, locking in old numbers even as new data emerge on the harms affecting millions of people.

40. Ogles (TN) The Department of Energy proposed to update standards for Automatic Commercial Ice Makers to take place in 2027, with the last finalized standards taking place in 2018. These standards, if adopted as proposed, will save 5 million metric tons of CO2 over the next 30 years. Efforts to undermine these standards, as this amendment does, will result in higher energy costs for consumers and increased climate pollution.

41. Ogles (TN) The Department of Energy’s most recent water heater efficiency standards finalized in 2024 will save households $170 each year on their utility bills while averting 332 million metric tons of CO2 emissions over 30 years. Efforts to undermine these standards, as this amendment does, will result in higher energy costs for consumers and increased climate pollution.

42. Perry (PA) This amendment would prohibit the Delaware River Basin Commission from using funds to enforce their unanimously-passed ban on hydraulic fracking, a practice which would increase both air, water, and groundwater pollution and jeopardize the health of communities, ecosystems, and wildlife that depend on the river. This amendment compromises the long-term health and resilience of the Delaware River, its watershed and its residents.

43. Perry (PA) The Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (AVTM) Loan Program provides loans to support the domestic manufacturing of advanced vehicles and vehicle components. Transportation accounts for over a quarter of our greenhouse gas emissions by sector and the ATVM Loan Program is providing the resources to manufacture a cleaner transportation sector domestically. Eliminating funding for the AVTM Loan Program would strip the Department of Energy of a key tool to advance clean transportation manufacturing domestically.

44. Perry (PA) The Title 17 Loan Program finances projects in the United States that support clean energy deployment and energy infrastructure reinvestment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution while catalyzing the green energy economy. The Title 17 Loan Program increases clean energy generation and manufacturing while creating jobs across the country – this amendment would put this progress and economic activity out of reach.

54. Roy (TX) This amendment would prohibit funding for FERC Order 1920 – effectively thwarting regulatory reforms necessary to advance the buildout of transmission infrastructure.   FERC Order 1920 will modernize and vastly expand transmission necessary to meet the existing and rapidly increasing demand for clean energy. Among other components, the rule requires long-term planning, thorough assessments of a region’s future energy mix and demand, and identification of clean, efficient and affordable energy solutions – all while addressing issues that have prevented the buildout of interstate transmission lines and stalled clean energy projects.

55. Roy (TX), Burlison (MO) This amendment would block spending to implement executive orders that help reduce pollution, adapt to climate change, and improve the clean energy independence of buildings and installments, and mitigate climate-related financial risks. The damaging effects of this amendment would include hobbling our government’s ability to prepare for and respond to the very real threats of the climate crisis.

56. Roy (TX), Burlison (MO) The DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) plays a pivotal role in accelerating research, development, and demonstration of technologies and solutions that boost U.S. economic competitiveness and job creation, advancing our national security and energy security, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and other harmful pollutants, and ensuring that the clean energy economy benefits all communities. Defunding EERE, as this amendment proposes, would seriously put American clean energy innovation at risk.

60. Tenney (NY), 63. Van Drew (NJ) Any amendments to arbitrarily and punitively eliminate or drastically cut salaries for federal government officials are personal financial attacks on individuals whose job it is to carry out the administration’s policies and are wholly inappropriate and unwarranted. Top officials directing important federal government business should be fairly paid for their work, and any attacks on government officials’ pay should be rejected.

61. Tenney (NY) President Biden’s Executive Order on Access to Voting is a critical effort to increase nonpartisan voter registration and participation when people interact with government agencies. This amendment would thwart common-sense, good-government innovations to better serve voters of all stripes, frustrating the goals of the decades-old, bipartisan National Voter Registration Act.

64. Van Drew (NJ) The underlying bill already hollows out the the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) with an over 40% cut, despite the fact that it plays a pivotal role in accelerating research, development, and demonstration of technologies and solutions that boost U.S. economic competitiveness and job creation, advancing our national security and energy security, reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and other harmful pollutants, and ensuring that the clean energy economy benefits all communities. Even further reducing funding for renewable energy, as this amendment proposes, would seriously put U.S. clean energy innovation and jobs at risk.

The following amendments go against our organizations’ commitment to racial justice and equity – we urge opposition on any en bloc that includes these or similar amendments: 38. Norman (SC).

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