Washington, DC - Today, Senators Capito, Lee, Heinrich, and Whitehouse introduced the “Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026,” a bill intended to speed the permitting of infrastructure and energy projects.
In reaction, Sierra Club’s Chief Program Officer Holly Bender released the following statement:
“There is no task more urgent than building clean energy and transmission. Congress must act to lower energy bills, protect clean air and water, and transition off of fossil fuels, and that means making it faster and easier to build transmission and clean energy. We are still reviewing this new 400+ page package. But this bill cannot guarantee that more wind and solar projects will actually get built as long as the Trump administration continues to block them at every turn. Meanwhile, the proposed text would create immediate benefits for oil and gas companies during a period of unprecedented growth in oil and gas infrastructure and record-breaking industry profits, while communities stand to lose critical protections for clean air, water, and wildlife. Sierra Club is ready to work with champions in Congress to ensure we can accelerate the deployment of clean energy without undermining key environmental and public health protections for communities and locking us into fossil fuels for generations to come.”
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.