Environmental and Frontline Groups Blast House Passage of the SPEED Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the House of Representatives passed the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act (H.R. 4776). The Act guts the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) – a bedrock environmental protection – to make it easier for Big Oil and other polluting industries to inflict their projects on communities. 

By undercutting NEPA, the SPEED Act would allow fossil fuel companies and other polluting corporations to cut corners in environmental reviews; bury information about the risks posed by their dirty, dangerous projects; and silence community opposition. It would also drastically curtail communities’ ability to hold polluters accountable through the courts.  

Yesterday, more than 70 organizations sent a letter to members of Congress expressing their strong opposition to the bill. 

In response to the SPEED Act’s passage in the House, national environmental groups and organizations representing communities fighting fossil fuel projects said: 

“The SPEED Act fast-tracks harmful fossil fuel and polluting projects, not the community-led clean energy solutions families and Indigenous peoples across the country have long called for. Instead of pushing the SPEED Act – a bill that would strip away what few legal protections communities still have, weaken safeguards for clean air, land, and water near new industrial development, and sidestep meaningful consultation with federally recognized Tribal Nations – Congress should be advancing real, community-driven permitting reform. Examples include the Environmental Justice for All Act, which lays out meaningful public engagement, strong public-health protections, respect for Tribal sovereignty and consultation obligations, and serious investments in agencies and staff.” – Mar Zepeda Salazar, Legislative Director, Climate Justice Alliance 

“The baseline environmental protection found in NEPA is not red tape – it is the public’s seat at the table and one of the only tools communities have to protect their health, homes, and future. The SPEED Act would remove that protection, and when public review is cut off and independent science is ignored, corporations get to externalize pollution, illness, flooding, and the loss of livelihoods onto families who never had a say. The SPEED Act protects corporate interests, not the public, and it should be rejected by any senator who claims to stand with the people.” – James Hiatt, For a Better Bayou 

“Organizing in New Mexico, I’ve seen how hard our communities fight just to protect what should never be up for negotiation – our air, our water, our health, and our future. Gutting NEPA is an open invitation for Big Oil to deepen the extraction, pollution, and harm we already face in the Permian Basin, in Greater Chaco, and across our rural, Indigenous, and working-class communities. Instead of weakening our last lines of defense, Congress should be strengthening environmental protections, investing in community-led solutions, and honoring the voices of the people who live with the consequences of extraction every single day.”- Feleecia Guillen, New Mexico Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies

“The SPEED Act represents yet another assault on the health of frontline, Black, Brown, Indigenous and poor white communities that have been designated as sacrifice zones by big polluters who bribe lawmakers with big money to continue a culture of extract, slash, burn, and emit at the expense of oppressed and marginalized peoples. Worse yet, this piece of industry-friendly legislation will take away due process from impacted communities by removing their right to sue big polluters who purposely select the places they call home to be dumped on and contaminated. Rather than speeding up the approval of dirty projects, Congress should increase funding for federal agencies and grassroots organizations accountable to frontline communities to carry out legally defensible and accurate environmental analyses as called for by Reps. Raúl Grijalva and McEachin in their landmark Environmental Justice for All Act.” – Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright, Co-Coordinator Black Alliance for Peace Climate, Environment and Militarism Initiative

“The SPEED Act favors golden calf solutions and the idolatry of profits above a people-centered economy and a planet where we can all thrive. It sacrifices community voices and environmental standards as a hasty concession to industry, allowing fossil fuel and corporate polluters to cut corners, suppress science, and sideline communities during routine review procedures. It is legislation at the expense of community and environmental well-being. We support legislation that upholds justice, stewardship, and the dignity of the human family, rejecting the SPEED Act’s inadequate solutions.” – Pablo DeJesús, Executive Director,  Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice

“The SPEED Act is a handout to fossil fuel companies and other big polluters at the expense of working people. Its sponsors include major recipients of Big Oil money like Bruce Westerman and Henry Cuellar. The bill lets the fossil fuel industry steamroll community opposition to their dangerous projects, suppress science on a project’s potential harms, and ignore climate consequences. Our senators must stand up against the SPEED Act’s attempts to undermine democratic decision-making, pollute our communities, and threaten our collective future.” – Allie Rosenbluth, U.S. Campaign Manager, Oil Change International 

“Tribal Nations in California are challenged with various laws and policies that perpetuate erasure and uphold extractive economies that lead to irreversible destruction to our lands, waters, and all beings. The SPEED Act will likely deepen the barriers that are imposed on Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Sovereignty, as this could: reduce the Tribal participation in the environmental reviews, accelerate permitting, and continue the legacy of settler-driven climate catastrophes. Congress must acknowledge that this is not the solution to achieving climate justice and would further burden Indigenous Peoples by diluting our inherent and sovereign rights; all decisions must be rooted in Free, Prior, and Informed consent– not deregulation.” – Starry Insixiengmay (Cahuilla), Ending Extractive Industries in Our Homelands Project Director, Sacred Places Institute For Indigenous Peoples

Fact Sheets

• House Natural Resources Committee fact sheet
• League of Conservation Voters Fact Sheet
• Resources for the Future NEPA Litigation Report
• University of Utah review of 1,499 NEPA cases, “Measuring the Litigation Burden”
• November letter opposing the SPEED Act
• Environmental Law Institute, “Dispelling the Myths of Permitting Reform and Identifying Pathways Forward”