Your organization can still sign onto this letter to all U.S. Senators:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdJYPPq-I7vrVSDmC3qoo4SrN9WwFpOacdMcPkacGpEn-5rwg/viewform

The letter specifically opposes pipeline pay-to-play: the section that would give pipeline companies expedited permitting if they pay the lesser of $10 million or 1% of their expected construction costs, while removing the ability of any state or federal agency to reject such a permit.

The letter also opposes the bill’s prohibition on state regulation of so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI) operations, which consume vast amounts of power and emit noise and pollution.

The latter has already been sent to all U.S. Senators, but they will get updates as more organizations sign on.

Sign the Letter Urging Senators to Vote No On the Reconciliation Bill: No pipeline pay to play

Dear Senators,

The “Big Beautiful Bill” strips states rights, property rights, and turns the United States into a Pay to Play nation whereby big industry polluters can very literally buy the permits they desire, States and regulatory agencies are stripped of the ability to reject damaging projects, and impacted property owners and impacted communities are too often denied their day in court, all in service to advance major fossil fuel pipelines, export facilities and associated infrastructure.

We, the undersigned organizations, are composed of communities and people who have experienced the threat and harm of our cherished lands, businesses and our very homes being scarred and damaged by FERC-regulated pipelines, compressor stations and LNG facilities.

• We have been forced to house pipelines, compressor stations, and meter & regulator stations that have inflicted irreparable damage to our front, back and side yards; our farmlands; our businesses; and our precious community parks and preserved lands that we have dedicated (collectively) millions of taxpayer dollars to purchase and protect.
• We have been forced to live and work with pipelines, compressor stations and meter & regulator stations on our properties and next to our homes, as they have spewed pollution at levels that harms the health of our children, ourselves, our friends and families; and brings an ever present threat of accidents, incidents and explosions that has destroyed our sense of safety and in some instances has literally blown up our homes and properties inflicting devastating damage to our bodies, even taking lives.
• We have been forced to host and support pipelines that have ravaged (or threatened to ravage) the forests, streams, watersheds and landscapes that enrich our lives while at the same time protecting us from flooding and protecting our drinking water supply.

In case you didn’t know or realize, among other damaging provisions, proposed Section 41004 of the proposed Big Beautiful Bill now before you:

• Allows pipeline companies to buy expedited review of their permit applications if they pay the lesser of $10 Million or 1% of the expected cost of constructing their project (a figure the pipeline company itself determines);
• Requires state agencies, federal agencies and interstate agencies to approve pipeline projects (and related infrastructure), only allowing the agencies to put in place conditions for pipeline construction and operations but removing entirely the ability to reject a project if necessary to protect communities and honor requirements in the law;
• Deems projects approved if regulatory agencies are unable—perhaps due to the failure of a company to provide all of the information required to undertake an appropriate review or due to the the size or complexity of a project — to meet a prescribed one-year deadline and the company refuses to agree to an extension of time for needed review;
• Only allows impacted property owners or communities to bring a challenge if they can demonstrate economic harm, and as a result, disregarding the safety, the health, and the environmental damages these projects have been known to inflict which results in serious — and sometimes life ending or altering — consequences; and
• Raises the cost of a legal challenge for many communities by requiring all challenges be brought before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which for communities in the center or western part of our nation may be cost prohibitive simply due to the distance of the court and the inability to meet a new clear and convincing standard of review.

These provisions are an abject giveaway that strips your constituents’ ability to protect their homes and businesses — the most significant and valued item(s) they own — and in so doing denies them the ability to support and protect their children, their families, and themselves from unnecessary and unfair harm.

In addition, Section 43201 strips states and local communities of their right or ability to regulate AI and AI systems for at least 10 years, including those systems being located in residential communities, right next to people’s homes. AI operations are already harming the ability of people to enjoy life on their own properties because of the perpetual noise and pollution. AI systems are devastating community drinking water supplies, subjecting communities and homeowners to 24/7 noise and light at dangerous levels, are overwhelming neighbors with health-harming and hazardous air pollution, are destroying ecosystems important to community quality of life and safety, and putting in grave jeopardy U.S. climate goals. Taking away State and community rights to regulate these operations is an abject giveaway to perpetuate political and policy objectives, not budget goals.

Policy changes like these do not belong in a bill that sets the federal budget. Provisions with such sweeping and devastating consequences for U.S. communities, property owners, business owners, state authority, and a significant number of other federal laws duly passed by the U.S. Congress should be discussed and negotiated, not snuck into a 1,000+ page bill. Your constituents deserve and demand better from you.

We write to urge you to vote no “No” on the budget reconciliation bill dubbed the Big Beautiful Bill.

Respectfully,

organizations will be listed in order of sign on

Delaware Riverkeeper Network ~ Better Path Coalition ~ Don’t Gas the Meadowlands Coalition ~ Seneca Lake Guardian ~ Waterspirit ~ Berks Gas Truth ~ Breathe Easy Susquehanna County ~ Hilltown Vision ~ MassPLAN ~ Pipe Line Awareness Network for the Northeast (PLAN) ~ Milford Doers Maryland New York 12116 ~ StopNED (Northeast Energy Direct) ~ Berkshire Environmental Action Team ~ The Enviro Show ~ Grandmothers’ Village Project, Inc. ~ Center for Oil and Gas Organizing ~ Preserve Giles County ~ Stop the Pipeline ~ Breathe Project ~ Rail Pollution Protection Pittsburgh (RP3) ~ Mothers Out Front ~ 350Brooklyn ~ Project CoffeeHouse ~ Merrimack Citizens for Clean Water ~ Third Act Massachusetts ~ Climate Reality Project: Susquehanna Valley Pennsylvania Chapter ~ Save our Susquehanna ~ NOPE-NE ~ Climate Reality Project, Southern Connecticut Chapter ~ XRBoston (Statehouse Standout) ~ Good Trouble Advocates ~ BLM860 ~ FracTracker Alliance ~ No False Climate Solutions Pennsylvania ~ Oil Change International ~ Compressor Free Franklin ~ 350 Triangle ~ Putting Down Roots ~ Concerned Residents of Oxford ~ Indivisible for Schoharie County ~ Property Rights and Pipeline Center ~ CleanAIRE North Carolina ~ Responsible Decarbonization Alliance ~ Dalton Democratic Town Committee ~ Waterkeepers Chesapeake ~ Chesapeake Climate Action Network ~ NOPE NE ~ People for a Healthy Environment ~ Patriots From The Oil & Gas Shales ~ PSR Pennsylvania ~ South Coast Neighbors United ~ NEPennsylvania Green Coalition ~ Climate Reality NEPennsylvania ~ Bucks Environmental Action ~ Crone House Farm ~ LaPlaca and Associates LLC ~ Vermont Community Thermal Networks ~ Lebanon Pipeline Awareness ~ Elmirans and Friends Against Fracking ~ FreshWater Accountability Project ~ HEETlabs ~ Dayenu Triangle Circle ~ North American Climate, Conservation and Environment(NACCE) ~ Coalition to Protect New York ~ Northfield Tool Lending Library ~ HealthLink ~ Extinction Rebellion SWConnecticut ~ Move Past Plastic (MPP) ~ Vermont Conservation Voters ~ Concerned Health Professionals of Pennsylvania ~ Laudato Si’ Movement ~ Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative ~ Gas Free Seneca ~ Friends of the Narrows of Hans Creek ~ Living Rivers & Colorado Riverkeeper ~ Protect Our Commonwealth ~ Lancaster Against Pipelines ~ SEED SW NM ~ Residents Allied for the Future of Tioga (RAFT) ~ CooperstownOneonta Indivisible ~ Worcester Congregations for Climate and Environmental Justice ~ Third Act New Hampshire ~ Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League ~ SAVE CARBON COUNTY ~ 350 Massachusetts Berkshire Node ~ Milwaukee Riverkeeper ~ LEPOCO Peace Center ~ Advocates for Cherry Valley ~ Green Dalton Committee ~ Mohawk Valley Keeper ~ Polar Planet ~ Third Act Maine ~ Third Act Connecticut ~ Trustees Collaborative for Parks & Open Space ~ Fore Fore River Residents Against Compressor Station (FRRACS) ~ Resonant Energy ~ Sunrise New Haven ~ Waterkeeper Alliance ~ Jewish Climate Action Network, MA ~ NY/NJ Baykeeper ~ Hurricane Creekkeeper ~ San Antonio Bay Waterkeeper ~ Black Warrior Riverkeeper ~ 350 Mass ~ Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper ~ Three Rivers Waterkeeper ~ Third Act Vermont ~ Lake George Waterkeeper ~ Alamosa Riverkeeper ~ Winyah Rivers Alliance ~ Allegheny County Clean Air Now (ACCAN) ~ Sourland Conservancy ~ Sustainable Middleborough ~ Sustainable Medina County ~ ECH Action NH ~ Third Act Pennsylvania ~ Suwannee Riverkeeper ~ Damascus Citizens for Sustainability ~ Bear Branch ~ New Jersey Student Sustainability Coalition ~ Saddler’s Woods Conservation Association ~ Columbia Riverkeeper ~ Tualatin Riverkeepers ~ Great Swamp Watershed Association ~ Delco/Manning TU ~ Philly Neighborhood Networks ~ Nonprofit Accountability Group ~ Potter’s Farm ~ Westville Environmental Commission ~ Climate Reality Project Lehigh Valley PA Chapter ~ UU Congregation of Binghamton, Green Sanctuary ~ Delaware City Environmental Coalition ~ Chautauqua-Conewango Consortium ~ Physicians for Social Responsibility Maine ~ RPG Properties Inc. ~ Atchafalaya Basinkeeper ~ Tree Tenders of Upper Darby ~ Climate Revolution Action Network ~ Beyond Extreme Energy ~ Sanderson Sustainable Design ~ Anacostia Riverkeeper ~ Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association ~ Oil and Gas Action Network ~ The People’s Justice Council ~ Twin Harbors Waterkeeper ~ 350Hawaii ~ Penobscot Bay Waterkeeper ~ Upper Coosa Riverkeeper ~ Institute for Policy Studies Climate Policy Program ~ Zero Hour ~ Long Beach Alliance for Clean Energy ~ Schuylkill Pipeline Awareness

STT-2017-03-25

Pieces of green pipe and valve, Sabal Trail Pipeline, Suwannee County, FL, Suwannee River, 2017-03-25, 30.4061111, -83.1527778

Long pipe, Sabal Trail Pipeline, Suwannee River, Suwannee County, FL, 2017-03-25, 30.4063420, -83.1535262

STT-2017-03-25

Same hop scotch pipe, Sabal Trail Pipeline, 2017-03-25, 30.4058333, -83.1525000

STT-2017-05-20

Pipeline sign on Hamilton County bank, Suwannee River, 2017-05-20, 30.4078446, -83.1562447

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can help with clean, swimmable, fishable, drinkable, water in the 10,000-square-mile Suwannee River Basin in Florida and Georgia by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/

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