House Democrats’ own witness blasted Biden’s climate bill for permitting ‘climate apocalypse’

Democrats’ witness at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday blasted supporters of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) last year for “permitting a climate apocalypse.”

John Beard, Jr., the founder and president of the Texas-based Port Arthur Community Action Network, particularly criticized the IRA for several provisions that open up millions of acres of federal land and waters to fossil fuel drilling. He said the $739 billion legislation would effectively green-light offshore drilling for decades to come, putting communities like his “at risk.”

Every Democratic member of the committee — excluding four members who entered office this year — voted for the IRA in August.

“We no longer have the luxury of debating whether or not we should open up our oceans to more oil and gas drilling,” Beard wrote in an Aug. 1 op-ed for The Hill. “If the Biden administration and our elected officials choose to dismiss the warning signs, ignore their own commitments and cave to the fossil fuel industry’s demands, they are all complicit in permitting a climate apocalypse.”

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“We can’t keep flying past these warning signs and flashing lights — we must understand that new drilling is a death sentence for the Gulf Coast and for our planet,” Beard continued. “If you think I am being alarmist, I invite you to come down to the Gulf Coast and see what the fossil fuel industry has done to our air, water and health — you can come see firsthand why we don’t want any new leases.”

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The IRA, which was signed by President Biden and authored by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., requires the federal government to reinstate Lease Sale 257, an offshore lease sale stretching across 80 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico, and to hold three other offshore lease sales that the Biden administration had previously canceled over climate concerns. 

The bill also tethers new renewable energy leases to additional fossil fuel leases. Under the bill, the DOI is prohibited from issuing wind or solar permits unless it has issued an onshore oil and gas permit during the previous 120-day period…