Climate change activists criticize Biden’s deal to approve harmful projects
WASHINGTON – Environmentalists have criticized the Biden administration’s plan to approve the Mountain Valley Pipeline project that has potential to imbalance local ecology.
They said the administration has agreed on a deal with Republicans that would require approval of all remaining permits for the planet-heating Mountain Valley Pipeline.
In exchange for an increase of the arbitrary debt limit, the U.S. government has agreed to weaken the government’s ability to prevent environmentally damaging projects, said environmentalists.
According to the text of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 non-military federal spending will remain the same at current levels and will increase by just 1% in 2025.
Peter Anderson, Virginia policy director for Appalachian Voices, said suspending regulations for a pipeline company amounts to denying justice to communities along the pipeline route.
“Singling out the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) for approval in a vote about our nation’s credit limit is an egregious act,” he said.
The project had previously been denied court approvals several times because of concerns about its impact on water quality.
The pipeline would run from West Virginia to Southern Virginia.
Under the bill, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would be required to issue any remaining permits within 21 days.
The bill also seeks to prevent judicial review of the permits by any government agency.
“The debt deal insists that building Senator Manchin’s pet MVP pipeline is in the national interest and will cut global warming emissions. These things simply aren’t true,” said author Bill McKibben.
This project is expected to emit more than 89 million metric tons of carbon, the equivalent of emissions from 26 coal-fired power plants.
“By attempting to suspend the rules for a pipeline company that has repeatedly polluted communities’ water and flouted the conditions in its permits, the president and Congress would deny basic legal protections, procedural fairness, and environmental justice to communities along the pipeline’s path,” Anderson added.
Biden and Senator Joe Manchin have claimed the pipeline is essential for energy security, and the bill text includes claims that the project “will reduce carbon emissions and facilitate the energy transition.”
As part of the debt ceiling negotiations, in addition to approving the pipeline, Biden also accepts the plan to gut the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
-Changing laws to favor fossil fuel companies
Jamie Henn, director of Fossil Free Media, noted that Biden’s approval of the pipeline project comes months after his administration approved the construction of the massive Willow Project, an oil well in Alaska.
“Changes to environmental laws and favors to fossil fuel companies have no place in a bill to raise the debt ceiling,” said Chelsea Barnes, director of government affairs and strategy at Appalachian Voices.
That could put about 280 million tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere by 2050.
Climate change activists say Biden allowed Senator Manchin and Republicans to hold the government hostage to push through the pipeline projects.
They also accused the administration of gutting basic environmental laws that give frontline communities a voice.
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