| CONTACT: Kayla Ritchie | [email protected] Climate Justice Alliance-led coalition warns the Bipartisan American Affordability & Jobs Act would roll back environmental safeguards, expand corporate power, and deepen environmental injustice. WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Climate Justice Alliance, joined by more than 100 environmental, faith, and labor organizations, led a letter urging U.S. Senators to reject the Bipartisan American Affordability & Jobs Act (BAAJA), a ‘permitting reform’ proposal slated for a November 9, 2026, vote. The action comes as the nation marks the 35th anniversary of the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, where the foundational 17 Principles of Environmental Justice were drafted. The coalition argues that this legislation undermines those principles; in part because ‘BAAJA codifies environmental injustice and discards the civil rights of Black, Indigenous and people of color by permanently locking in fossil fuel infrastructure in communities that legislators have already sacrificed time and time again.’ The coalition identified key sections of the legislation that, if passed, would deregulate federal protections, codify mining on public lands, limit peoples’ access to legal redress, and expand the buildout of more fossil fuel projects. This comes at a time when the Trump Administration is already wreaking havoc on multiple federal protections, including public health and legal safeguards. Among the over 75 rollbacks, we are concerned BAAJA will: Gut foundational environmental protections. Eviscerating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), ripping up key protections of the Clean Water Act, weakening the Endangered Species Act, and codifying the highly problematic Mining Regulatory Clarity Act that gives mining companies free rein over public lands, all while simultaneously preventing ordinary people from challenging harmful projects in court. Lock in harmful projects indefinitely. Title IV would make it much harder for federal agencies to revisit certain permits; even when communities experience worsening air pollution, water shortages, or other harms that weren’t fully understood when a project was approved. Communities could be left living with the consequences while the government’s ability to respond is sharply limited. Give project developers new legal benefits with no parallel protections for communities.. Protecting big business rather than people by granting project developers the new ability to bring a ‘disparate treatment’ claim in the courts–a concept rooted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This expands legal avenues for corporations while failing to offer equivalent protections to communities facing environmental injustice. With a Senate vote approaching, the coalition warns that the legislation would advance an agenda that rolls back environmental justice protections while leaving frontline communities to bear the consequences. The letter ends with a hard truth that has been felt for too long by too many, ‘Your closed-door deal bolsters the work of the Trump administration which is hell-bent on dismantling environmental justice at every turn, and we are beyond outraged at what you are saying our lives are worth. Reject this travesty.’ Read the full letter here. # # # # # The post More than 100 Environmental, Faith and Labor Groups Urge Senators Heinrich and Whitehouse to Reject Permitting Bill Ahead of November 9 Vote appeared first on Climate Justice Alliance. |