By Terry Hokenson
In its March issue, the Bugle carried a commentary extolling the alternative energy virtues of the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024.
I heartily agree that wind and solar energy together with storage technologies are top priority for a rational energy policy in the face of deepening climate crisis.
However, the EPRA, as the Bugle story in March insinuated, does not serve to advance wind and solar. The opposite is true.
Note first who is sponsoring this bill—none other than fossil fuel industry advocate U.S. Senator Joe Manchin. While an internet search turns up many fossil fuel–backed EPRA proponents, there are also analyses from sources of distinction leaning the other way.
Friends of the Earth (FOE) states that “the legislation is a sweeping giveaway to the fossil fuel industry at a time when a swift and equitable transition to a clean energy economy is needed.”
Climate Justice Alliance also takes a critical look at EPRA: “The bill threatens to dismantle critical environmental safeguards like the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), putting communities at greater risk of harmful pollution and health hazards.
Under the guise of accelerating clean energy projects, EPRA prioritizes corporate profits over the health and safety of vulnerable communities, and locks in the continuation of dirty energy.”
A group of energy and environmental law scholars wrote to leaders in the U.S. House and Senate, “Some of the EPRA provisions may help to accelerate the clean energy transition in the United States…. Other provisions would have the opposite effect, increasing greenhouse gas emissions by promoting leasing and extraction of fossil fuels on federal public lands and removing or lowering barriers to other fossil fuel infrastructure.”
The letter added, “We are also concerned that, in its current incarnation, the EPRA may undermine efforts to advance environmental justice because it may result in significant additional environmental harms in communities that already experience disproportionate burdens (such as low-income communities and communities of color).”
Finally, a group of U.S. scientists wrote to express “substantial concerns regarding the Energy Permitting Reform Act (“EPRA”) of 2024. We are now in a time of record-breaking temperatures year over year, with new science suggesting that limiting warming to 1.5°C is increasingly out of reach.
Legislation that further accelerates global fossil fuel development and global emissions, the key driver of climate devastation, will only result in even more severe climate impacts.”
EPRA is, in other words, a Trojan horse.
Terry Hokenson is a retired attorney, semi-retired carpenter and life-long clean energy advocate. He lives in walking distance from Hampden Park Co-op, where he buys 95% of his groceries.