President Biden and Congress Must Reject the Dirty Polluter Permitting Bill and Prioritize Comunidades of Color, Not Polluters and Their Profits

WASHINGTON - This week, Congress is expected to try and pass Sen. Joe Machin's (D-WV) updated permitting dirty side deal by attaching it to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), thereby ignoring frontline communities who led the successful effort to reject this dirty deal in September.

This backdoor negotiation is an environmental justice disaster, especially disproportionately impacting Latino/a/e and communities of color bearing the brunt of fossil fuel pollution.

Following the release of this big oil backdoor deal, GreenLatinos Founding President and CEO Mark Magaña released the following statement:

“Despite the explicit rejection of this polluter permitting bill introduced by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and authored by the American Petroleum Institute (API), it’s been updated and released yet again.

The continued insistence on pushing through a knowingly toxic bill that disproportionately impacts Latino/a/e neighborhoods and other communities of color is an insult to frontline communities everywhere consistently burdened by climate pollution. The re-introduction of this fossil fuel industry rubber-stamped bill is sending a direct message to communities of color and people on the frontlines of climate disasters that polluters are more valued than people.

In the last year, our communities have made progress toward a sustainable and equitable clean energy future, but more must be done to protect the most vulnerable communities. If we allow this polluter wish list bill to pass, Latino/a/e communities will be among the most negatively impacted. The 2022 American Lung Association State of the Air report found that people of color were 61% more likely to live in counties with failing national air quality standards, putting these communities at greater risk of severe health impacts and premature deaths.

The time is now for President Biden and Congress to protect these communities by adequately funding oversight agencies and using community-based solutions like those outlined in the Latino Climate Justice Framework. Rather than allowing this dirty deal to pass, we must ensure communities of color are sufficiently protected by passing the Environmental Justice for All Act. This comprehensive bill would combat environmental injustice and empower communities.

Congress must step up and do the right thing by choosing people over profits and prevent the passage of any bill that caters to the fossil fuel industry over the health of our families.”

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GreenLatinos is an active comunidad of Latino/a/x leaders, emboldened by the power and wisdom of our culture, united to demand equity and dismantle racism, resourced to win our environmental, conservation, and climate justice battles, and driven to secure our political, economic, cultural, and environmental liberation.

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GreenLatinos es una comunidad activa de líderes latinos/a/x, envalentonados por el poder y la sabiduría de nuestra cultura, unidos para exigir equidad y desmantelar el racismo, con recursos para ganar nuestras batallas ambientales, de conservación y de justicia climática, y impulsados a asegurar nuestra liberación política, económica, cultural y ambiental.