House Attempts to Roll Back Climate Progress

As you have likely heard, Congress and the President are negotiating on a must-pass bill to increase the debt ceiling. As part of these negotiations, House leadership has thus far shown an inclination to use their leverage to roll back climate progress, both by directly repealing parts of the historic Inflation Reduction Act and by passing H.R.1, a package of energy development bills that offers an oil and gas free-for-all at a moment the country should be focusing on transitioning to renewable energy and protecting the many recreation, economic, and conservation values of public lands and waters.

The debt ceiling is a limitation on the amount of debt the U.S. Treasury can incur. Because of our country’s obligations to pay our existing debts—which Congress has already voted for—the debt ceiling is essentially a vote on whether the government will pay the obligations to bond holders that it has already occurred. These negotiations could have a profound impact on the outdoors and on outdoor recreation experiences, if Congress decides to force the inclusion of unrelated bills, like H.R. 1 to debt ceiling negotiations.

Adam Cramer, Outdoor Alliance CEO, said, “Outdoor recreation is profoundly important to Americans, and a critical part of the economy. Efforts to lock up land for more oil and gas drilling, to roll back public comment periods, and to move backward on climate efforts are a direct threat to the outdoor recreation economy. They are a step backward for hard-won work to address climate change.”

Last week, the House passed a debt ceiling bill that included H.R. 1, which we’ve previously expressed our concerns about. H.R.1 would lock up millions of acres of public land for oil and gas development, undue recent progress on climate mitigation, undermine environmental laws that protect public comment periods, and substantially loosen already limited mining safeguards while leaving taxpayers liable for pollution and cleanup. These actions are a direct threat to outdoor recreation access and to the outdoor recreation economy.

These House members are threatening to upend the economy unless lawmakers agree to gutting the climate progress we’ve made. As part of their negotiations, they’d like to see one of the country’s hallmark environmental laws, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), substantially weakened. As a result, Americans would have fewer opportunities to understand what’s going on, on their public lands and waters and to weigh in on development and other projects.
If you’d like, we’ve made it easy to write a short note to your lawmakers expressing your concerns about their attempts to roll back climate progress and pass H.R.1: