Rep. Jim Costa was the only Valley leader to vote for public health | Opinion
I want to thank Rep. Jim Costa who was the only member of Congress in the Central Valley who stood up for our health by voting against a bill that will give preferential treatment to polluting fossil fuel projects over clean energy projects.
America’s energy demand is rising and outdated permitting processes are slowing progress. This raises energy prices for everyone and affects reliability. Initially, the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act had strong bipartisan support, as it seeks to streamline the environmental review process for infrastructure projects. But at the last minute, Republicans changed the wording in such a way that allows the Trump administration leeway to offer a streamlined process to oil and gas projects but not to projects related to things like solar, wind and battery storage.
Elected officials should not remove the bureaucratic bottlenecks for fossil fuel projects and leave clean energy projects languishing. Our kids and grandkids need them to do better.