This deal – the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (S. 5653) – would enable a no-guardrails buildout of dangerous fossil fuel projects that will harm our health and environment, drive up energy costs, and violate our rights. 

This deal would gut bedrock environmental laws such as NEPA and CWA, and enable a no-guardrails buildout of dangerous projects that will harm our health and environment, drive up energy costs, and violate our rights. 

This will be especially harmful for communities of color and lower income neighborhoods already overburdened by pollution and climate impacts. Black, Brown, Indigenous, and low-income communities disproportionately live near fossil fuel infrastructure and endure greater climate impacts due to a legacy of discriminatory redlining practices. 

Environmental justice communities are tired of being left out of conversations that impact them most, and yet this deal was negotiated in the dark and follows years of similar bad faith legislation communities successfully opposed (e.g. the SPEED Act). 

Now is not the time to put polluter profits over our lives and the health of our planet. We don’t need another giveaway to Big Oil.  Instead we need real leadership to promote transparency, democratic accountability, and affordable clean energy.

As Jews and people of faith, we know that the only path forward is one of tzedek, justice –everyone deserves clean air, water, health and safety. Elevating the interests of the fossil fuel industry over human life is the very opposite of ensuring a just and livable future.