We write as member organizations of the People vs. Fossil Fuels (PvFF)coalition, which is a network of over 1,200 climate justice, Indigenous, Black, Latino, social justice, economic justice, progressive, environmental, youth, faith, and other organizations working collectively toward a common goal of ending the era of fossil fuels. Together, we represent and are accountable to millions of people and their communities in the United States. We stand in solidarity with global communities impacted by an accelerating and worsening climate crisis.
PvFF is aligned with, and adheres to, the 1991 Principles of Environmental Justice as well as the 1996 Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing in a larger effort to center frontline Black, Indigenous and people of the global majority and poor communities stories, leadership, and decision-making, and actively work to confront the forces of white “supremacy,” colonialism, patriarchy and extractive industries and economies. It is in this spirit that we are pleased to present this position statement on the issue of deregulatory “permitting reform” and our vision for initiatives that should be pursued during the remainder of the 119th Congressional Session.
There can be no debate about the state of climate action under the current administration. In less than one year, the nation has observed a rapid onslaught of polluter-friendly, anti-climate justice actions advanced by the President and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. This includes a direct assault on provisions to protect frontline and disadvantaged environmental justice communities that will be most impacted by rescinded rules and other rollbacks of long-standing policies established to protect communities and the environment from pollution and to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. This continues a trend of changes to the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), including the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which has already rendered federal environmental policy in a state of flux in ways that are already harming frontline, disadvantaged environmental justice communities.
