Gutting Environmental Laws for Oil is Ba-a-a-c-c-c-k!
By Mark J. Palmer
In a previous blog, the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute outlined the lengths to which the oil industry and its minions in Congress were going in order to evade environmental laws, in their effort to promote more leasing and drilling for oil and gas on public lands and the offshore continental shelf.
Higher gas prices at the pump are allegedly due to the Biden Administration's reluctance to approve new oil and gas drilling leases on public lands and offshore our nation's coast. In fact, it will take years for any current leases to actually produce any price reduction, and the industry already owns thousands of acres of leases which are currently lying dormant.
One such legislative end-run was scotched just before Congress left town for the mid-term elections on November 8th. This attempt was spearheaded by Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who owns his own coal company and takes in huge amounts of campaign contributions from the oil industry. He is a Democrat firmly in the pocket of the oil, gas, and coal industry lobbyists.
Senator Manchin’s support was necessary in order for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to pass the Senate, as none of the Republican Senators would support it. The IRA will provide tremendous government subsidies for green energy needs, but Senator Manchin extracted promises from Senate leaders that his oil and gas buddies would not be ignored by Congress. He proposed legislative amendments that would cripple environmental legislation, like the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the ground-breaking legislation that requires federal projects, like oil and gas leasing, to be reviewed and modified for any environmental impacts. Senator Manchin proposed to speed up the leasing and review process, putting more pressure on the Biden Administration to open critical public lands and ocean waters to oil drilling and the damage such drilling entails.
I was in Washington DC the week before Senator Manchin’s amendments were scheduled for a vote to be added to the Continuing Resolution (CR), legislation to keep the federal government running. I had many meetings with staff and members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and urged members to oppose the Manchin pollution amendments.
Fortunately, Senator Manchin was unable to find enough votes among members and dropped his amendments. Ironically, all Republican Senators refused to support the Manchin amendments because they did not go far enough in getting rid of environmental and public health laws. Many progressive Democrats bucked the Senate leadership's promise to Senator Manchin to add the amendments to the CR.
In our blog, we hailed the death of the Manchin amendments, but like zombies, bad ideas in Congress never die. As we warned then, Senator Manchin is back planning shortly to reintroduce his amendments to be added to legislation pending in Congress after the Nov. 8th elections.
Congress will reconvene for a short session beginning November 14th, and will likely continue work until the middle of December, a scant four weeks to pass legislation. There are several major bills remaining for Congress to act on, which include the National Defense Authorization Act to fund the US military. This or other legislative vehicles are being eyed by Senator Manchin to again attach his amendments to “speed up” permitting for oil and gas drilling projects, regardless of the environmental consequences.
The International Marine Mammal Project strongly opposes these amendments and urges Congress to again reject them. The global warming consequences of speeding up more oil and gas drilling confront us, as individuals and as a species. The oil left in the ground will not go anywhere. Burning fossil fuels contributes to the acceleration of climate disaster.
Green energy is the way forward.
An offshore oil rig, prone to oil spills, big and small. Photo Credit: Katie Bowen.
What You Can Do:
Contact your House Representative and two Senators. Urge them to oppose any efforts to “streamline” oil and gas permitting, as proposed by Senator Manchin. Tell your elected representatives that the legislation would harm wildlife, especially marine mammals, our oceans, and continue to feed the dangerous warming of our Earth. Oil and gas should stay in the ground, not be burned to contribute to more and more global warming.
For information on contacting your two Senators in Washington DC, go here.
For information on contacting your member of the House of Representatives, go here.
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Oil and gas drilling in the ocean is only one major threat to the homes of whales, dolphins, and myriad other marine life. Global warming is causing potential food losses for many species, while plastic and toxic pollution is rampant. Your donations to the International Marine Mammal Project can help address these and other dangers facing whales and dolphins. We thank you for your support!
