SEEC Decries Republican Failure to End Trump’s Cheap Energy Obstruction

Washington, D.C. – The leaders of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC), including Co-Chairs Reps. Doris Matsui, Mike Quigley, and Paul Tonko and Vice Chairs Reps. Don Beyer, Suzanne Bonamici, Sean Casten, Mike Levin, and Chellie Pingree, released the following statement in response to the House passage of the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act (H.R. 4776). 

“Amidst President Trump's all-out war on clean energy, Republicans this week passed a partisan bill that attempts to streamline permitting for polluters but does nothing to stop President Trump’s total permitting freeze on clean energy projects. This could have been an opportunity for meaningful, bipartisan collaboration to reduce barriers for cheap, clean energy projects and lower energy costs for all Americans. Instead, House Republicans abandoned their alleged ‘all of the above’ principles and demonstrated extraordinary hypocrisy by picking winners and losers. They are congratulating themselves for speeding up federal permitting for polluters while handing Donald Trump the tools to continue to undermine cheap, clean American energy projects at every turn. 

“Unfortunately, the SPEED Act as passed would silence American communities and prevent courts from blocking dangerous projects. Under this bill, courts would not even be allowed to pause projects when environmental reviews are found to be fraudulent or incomplete. This bill would essentially turn our environmental protection laws into little more than a paper-pushing exercise to greenlight expensive, dirty energy projects while leaving clean energy projects out to dry. 

“This is not the way to deliver real, durable solutions to Trump’s self-inflicted affordability crisis. We will continue to fight for solutions that will provide cheap, clean energy for American families, deliver economic certainty for American businesses, and build a thriving American economy. If we want to be serious about a bipartisan effort to build America’s future, our House Republican colleagues have to first learn how to stand up against Trump’s scorched-earth attacks on affordable and reliable clean energy.”