For Immediate Release, October 9, 2024
Leading Scientists Warn Energy Permitting Reform Act Spells Climate Disaster
WASHINGTON— In a letter to Congress, more than 100 scientists warn that the Energy Permitting Reform Act, or EPRA, will worsen the climate crisis and harm community health. The bill, introduced by Sens. Joe Manchin (I‑W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R‑Wyo.) in July, seeks to significantly expand fossil fuel extraction, infrastructure and exports within other provisions related to clean energy development.
The letter, co-signed by 118 scientific experts, says increases in carbon emissions from the bill’s fossil fuel buildout would undermine or even cancel out the potential emissions cuts from its renewable energy and transmission improvements. The letter urges Congress to oppose the bill.
“This bill is a Trojan horse for fossil fuel interests,” said Daniel Kammen, Ph.D., Lau Distinguished Professor of Sustainability at the University of California, Berkeley. “The potentially modest emissions reductions don’t come close to justifying the guaranteed explosion of emissions from fossil fuel exports. When we’ve got back-to-back superstorms battering the Southeast, we have to be clear about the guaranteed fossil fuel fiasco this bill represents.”
Global greenhouse gas emissions will increase as more U.S. fossil fuels are extracted and exported overseas, undercutting domestic emissions decreases in the power sector due to replacement by renewables.
“The climate crisis demands an immediate and rapid reduction in greenhouse emissions globally, so it is not enough to reduce emissions domestically while exporting our emissions footprint abroad,” the letter says.
By failing to account for the full lifecycle of emissions from fossil fuel exports, modeled results claiming emissions benefits of the EPRA are likewise misleading and undercut by planned and pending fossil fuel infrastructure projects. The United States is already the world’s top exporter of fossil gas and petroleum products, a trend that would be further locked in under the bill.
The EPRA would mandate additional fossil fuel leases on tens of millions of acres of public lands and hundreds of millions of acres of offshore waters. It would expedite approvals for LNG gas export projects and additional coal leasing on public lands with enormous consequences for the climate. For example, five major LNG projects that would likely proceed because of the bill would result in annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 165 coal-fired power plants.
The bill’s fossil fuel buildout would come at the expense of people’s health and welfare. Fossil fuel infrastructure, including additional LNG export facilities, would cost billions in additional health costs every year, with harms largely centered on Black and Latino communities in the U.S. Gulf Coast region.