Washington – Last night the House Energy & Commerce Committee released its version of the Republicans’ massive budget reconciliation bill. Among its provisions, the proposal would: 

• Allow the Dept. of Energy to automatically deem a potential liquefied natural gas export facility to be in the “public interest” — normally a key regulatory hurdle — if the applicant pays a one-time fee of $1 million.
• Allow other natural gas infrastructure developers to receive an “expedited permitting process” from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under the Natural Gas Act if the applicant pays $10 million or 1 percent of the project’s projected cost.
• Allow a similar timeline and fee for carbon dioxide, oil and hydrogen pipeline permitting.

In response, Food & Water Watch Policy Director Jim Walsh issued the following statement: 

“This latest budget proposal from House Republicans represents a new low in shameful deference to poisoning, polluting fossil fuel interests. In what is essentially a sanctioned bribery scheme, companies would pay relatively small fees for the right to build new oil and gas pipelines and export facilities with little to no safety and environmental review. Trump and Republicans in Congress are hell-bent on handing this country over to profit-driven polluters, forsaking the will of local communities and the wellbeing of millions of Americans in the process.”