Ahead of a vote on H.R. 1, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) sent the following letter to the full House of Representatives. LCV will strongly consider including votes on H.R. 1 in the 2023 National Environmental Scorecard.

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March 27, 2023
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Re: Oppose H.R. 1

Dear Representative,

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) believes that everyone has a right to clean air, clean water, public lands, and a safe climate protected by a just and equitable democracy. Each year, LCV publishes the National Environmental Scorecard, which details the voting records of members of Congress on environmental legislation. The Scorecard is distributed to LCV members, concerned voters nationwide, and the media.

LCV urges you to vote NO on H.R. 1, a sweeping, harmful and backward-looking package of bills that amount to a huge giveaway to polluters and lock us into new fossil fuel production, exacerbate the climate crisis, worsen environmental injustice, and increase toxic pollution that threatens our health. This bill includes numerous provisions designed solely to benefit polluters in the oil, gas, chemical and mining sectors. Provisions in this legislation would: speed the approval and build out of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports while stripping the government of its responsibility to assess its full impact on consumers, climate, and communities; repeal common-sense oil and gas leasing reforms passed in the Inflation Reduction Act; mandate expanded oil and gas leasing on public lands; make it even easier to hand over our public lands to mining companies; repeal the Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP); and speed construction of new methane gas pipelines. Additionally, this bill would rush the approval of toxic chemicals used in energy-related activities eliminating review of important health and safety impact, circumvent air permitting requirements, and more.

H.R. 1 would also undermine bedrock environmental laws that are critical to community input and protecting our air and water. The legislation includes sweeping provisions that gut the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by cutting the most impacted local communities out of the process, severely limiting access to judicial recourse, and further advantaging industry through deferring to their analyses, setting arbitrary timelines and limiting alternatives considered. Also, the legislation undermines states and tribes’ authority under the Clean Water Act to ensure projects do not harm waterways in their jurisdictions.

Finally, this legislation raises the deficit by more than $2 billion dollars while repealing additional provisions passed through the Inflation Reduction Act that save hardworking families money, create good-paying jobs, tackle climate change and clean up the air we breathe. It repeals the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund which will directly invest $27 billion — and leverage a much larger amount of private investment — in critical climate and clean energy projects across the country, and takes money out of families’ pockets while raising their costs by doing away with the home electrification rebate program. At a time when oil and gas CEOs are raking in record profits and using them to enrich their shareholders, climate impacts are harming communities across the country and the world, and volatile fossil fuel prices are hitting families hard, it has never been so clear that Congress should be focused on speeding the transition to affordable and reliable clean energy solutions, not propping up the dirty fossil fuel industry.

For all these reasons, we strongly urge you to oppose H.R. 1 and all anti-environmental amendments. We will strongly consider scoring votes on this legislation in the 2023 Scorecard. If you would like more information, please reach out to a member of our government relations team.

Sincerely,

Gene Karpinski
President