SEEC Statement on the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act

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 after the Senate began the process to bring the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) to a vote.

“The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) includes important policies to reform our transmission system that are necessary to unlock clean energy and reduce utility bills, while also ensuring that American families are not paying for data centers. Many of these policies are included within the SEEC-led Energy Bills Relief Act (H.R. 7977). 

“BAAJA also includes environmental rollbacks that are concerning to us. The Manager’s Amendment made some improvements to the original bill, but there are still areas of the bill that need improvement, and as the Senate moves to debate amendments, we urge the Senate to address these remaining issues.

“Within the language aimed at creating permitting certainty, we want to ensure the provisions will work as intended and not foreclose commonsense regulations or limit the ability of future administrations to withdraw permits on their own, even ones they believe were illegally issued. For clean water, we are concerned by the limitations that will be placed on our states to protect their own water, which will have water quality impacts beyond just the bounds of energy infrastructure projects. The limitations on the type of data that can be considered under the Endangered Species Act could impact the nature of science-based decision-making that goes into protecting our nation’s endangered species. We are concerned the bill would bar courts from stopping a project over National Environmental Policy Act, Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, and National Historic Preservation Act violations, even when an agency skipped the required review entirely. We are also listening to Tribal voices who have remaining concerns with the National Historic Preservation Act title and our ability to uphold Tribal sovereignty and the federal government’s trust and treaty responsibilities. 

“We are committed to working with our Senate colleagues to address these issues, and we echo Leader Jeffries’ comments that there still needs to be more constructive involvement with the House Democratic Caucus.”