| |  | | | Dear Friend, The Senate is moving quickly to vote on S. 5653, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) of 2026 this Monday, November 9, the first day Congress comes back from Midterm recess. We oppose the version of Permitting Reform being advanced in this bill, we view it as a deregulation push. We are profoundly alarmed by recent analysis tracing how BAAJA tracks with Project 2025 and meets quite a few strategic goals articulated in therein. Help right now: - Most impactful: Call your Senator and tell them to oppose BAAJA, to give it a no vote. You can dial 877-796-1949 to connect with both your Senators (thanks to Food & Water Watch!), and riff off this script provided by People vs Fossil Fuels.
- Take a click action with: People vs Fossil Fuels, the Climate Justice Alliance, the Progressive Caucus Fund ACTION, or Oil Change International, even Demand Progress.
- Consider attending the Monday rally in DC being organized by 106 Strong that will uplift Tribal voices.
- RSVP to join UUSJ in collaboration with friends from the People vs Fossil Fuels coalition and the UU Climate Justice Coalition for a level set briefing on Wednesday, November 11th at 8:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. PT
This is urgent: A Senate Managers Amendment was released on Saturday, November 7, which indicates real intent to vote Monday. Yet, the amendment, is limited. The changes do not fix the destruction this bill will render. It does not address a range of dynamics that our UU Joint Statement identified as problematic. Nor does it consider the alternative path we enumerated in our statement: start with the Environmental Justice for All Act, then proceed into legislation that seeks to address infrastructure, performance, or emissions reductions. We find the amendment insufficient to change our position on BAAJA, and we are not alone in this baseline assessment: Call to action: We urge you, friend, to act for justice, interdependence and equity. To embrace a generous and transformative pluralism as part of the free search for responsible truth. Call your Senator • Click if that is what you can do • Rally and bear witness • RSVP to learn more on November 11. |
| Note, it is fair to report that BAAJA is controversial. Accordingly, this email provides content for you to consider including synthesis of the circumstance, and disclosure of statements or analysis both pro and con. We encourage you to act in opposition, along with 1,113 groups, but also to asses for yourself. We recognize the "how" of this bill has once again thrown into sharp relief a divide among Unitarian Universalists, Two Approaches to Fighting Climate Change, UUs support Build Back Fossil Free, [and] Citizens’ Climate Lobby, UU World. It is ok to disagree. It's part of what it means to be in covenant as a Unitarian Universalist, and in fellowship for social justice. UUSJ, being about "Social Justice" carries a theological and philosophical architecture with it, and we abide in that alignment. We still LOVE those who disagree with our position on BAAJA. Productive and generative conflict creates space for new understandings and progress toward Beloved Community. |
| Rally Monday Nov. 9, Capitol Grounds Tell The Senate Strike Title III. Protect 106 The BAAJA permitting bill poses an existential threat to bedrock laws protecting Tribal sovereignty, environmental justice, and wildlife. The Senate will take this up right when they get back to D.C. on November 9th. That afternoon, the People vs Fossil Fuels coalition is partnering with the 106 Strong coalition on a rally midday at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., to elevate the enormous grassroots opposition to this bill. - Location: West Front Lawn, U.S. Capitol Grounds: the grassy lawn directly in front of the west face of the U.S. Capitol, facing the National Mall.
- Time: 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Arrive by noon so organizers can start on time.
RSVP to receive last minute updates and Live Stream details if/as they are finalized. (Organizers are working to make that happen.) |
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| | Powerful Voices, Rallying as One (on Nov. 9): | | - Martin Luther King III, Chairman, Drum Major Institute
- Lynda Carter, Actress, Philanthropist and CEO of Impact Sciences
- Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Member of Congress (MI)
- Rep. Adelita S. Grijalva, Member of Congress (AZ)
- Rep. Melanie Stansbury, Member of Congress (NM)
- All Pueblo Council of Governors
- Chairman Leonard Forsman, Suquamish Tribe
- Council Member Conrad Jacket, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe
- Chief Anne Richardson, Rappahannock Tribe
- Mary Means, Founder of the Main Street revitalization movement
- Vedet Coleman-Robinson, President & CEO, Assoc. of African American Museums
- Rebecca Miller, Executive Director, DC Preservation League
- Charles A. Birnbaum, President & CEO, The Cultural Landscape Foundation
- Joy and Jo Banner, Co-Founders, The Descendants Project
- Yiselle Santos Rivera, Incoming President, American Institute of Architects
- Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO, American Society of Landscape Architects
- Brian Daniels, President, Archaeological Institute of America
- A. Prince Albert III, Founder, The Culture Keepers Circle (emcee)
- Greg Werkheiser, Attorney, Cultural Heritage Partners, & 106 Strong Coalition lead
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106 Strong offers tips for visiting Congressional offices, and the Rally: Tools for Killing the Bill Social Media Toolkit |
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| | Oppose BAAJA’s Deregulation Approach to Permitting On Monday, November 9, the Senate is poised to vote on a permitting reform bill S.5653 the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (BAAJA), that will facilitate a massive build-out of dirty energy to support AI Data Centers and threatens our bedrock environmental laws. With Food and Water Watch Action, our friends in the People vs Fossil Fuels coalition, you can call Congress to oppose the bill using an auto dialer. A: Call your senators at 877-796-1949, tell them to oppose BAAJA because it will: - Supercharge AI data center development by fast-tracking permits for gas pipelines, transmission lines, and other infrastructure they rely on.
- Limit opportunities for communities, states, and Tribes to review, challenge, or halt the gas infrastructure projects needed to power data centers.
- Make it more profitable to power data centers with fracked gas by allowing gas-fired plants and backup diesel generators - built to serve data centers - to sell excess power and grid services.
- Keep gas projects online even if a data center isn’t built or no longer needs the power.
- Limit future administrations and Congress from slowing the data-center dirty-energy buildout.
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| B: Take a click action with other friends in the coalition: |
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| | Action Requested: Event What's Next on Permitting Reform, the Deregulation Push Wednesday, November 11
8:00 p.m. ET • 7:00 p.m. CT • 6:00 p.m. MT • 5:00 p.m. PT • 4:00 p.m. AT • 2:00 p.m. HT Join us next week when UUSJ hosts a briefing on S. 5653, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) of 2026 in collaboration with friends from the People vs Fossil Fuels coalition. This level set will summarize the impacts of the bill, its deregulatory features, and give guidance on how best to engage Congress during the Lame Duck. A vote in the Senate is expected on Monday, November 9. UUSJ Opposes BAAJA. We find the tradeoff being proffered too steep a price, and we love our neighbors too much to remain silent or inactive. See the UU Joint Statement, on this matter for our position. Speakers will include: - Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, Executive Director, Western Environmental Law Center
- Ariana Kretz, Policy Coordinator, Climate Justice Alliance
- Members of the UU Climate Justice Coalition
Additional content on BAAJA below, but note three recent explainer items: UUSJ is a member of both the People vs Fossil Fuels coalition and the UU Climate Justice Coalition (and Detention Watch Network). |
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| Permitting Reform vs. Deregulation Controversy In late September, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Mike Lee (R-UT) introduced S.5653, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (BAAJA) (Press Release), looking to pass it before year’s end. A \vote is expected for Monday, November 9, the first day Congress is back from the midterms. The release of BAAJA has kicked off a storm of controversy and analysis: - Industry, trade associations, and energy-aligned actors immediately began to celebrate.
- Environmental Justice and Climate Justice-aligned actors began to sound the alarm.
- Big Greens mostly struck a cautious, some say a politically deferential posture.
- Congress, as a general tendency, quickly began looking for ways to get to a "yes" vote.
- Community-based organizations and grassroots activists began voicing outrage.
And questions linger: |
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| | Once again into the breach For long-time activists and analysts, the BAAJA proposal has opened old wounds and fissures in the environmental movement writ large, recalling when in 1990, inspired by the strategies of grassroots allies on the Gulf Coast, Richard Moore and other members of SWOP (Southwest Organizing Project) penned an open letter to the 10 Big Greens to point out that the organizations that were nominally concerned with “environmental issues” paid little mind to community leaders and perspectives: the concerns that would become environmental justice. BAAJA has reminded many communities they can not count on dominant culture actors, nor major national non-profits, to protect them. They point to foundational environmental analysis such as The 17 Principles of Environmental Justice (1991) and The Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing (1996) as guideposts for what should be happening, and decry what they view as a typical Wall Street, Capitol Hill backroom deal which now includes Silicon Valley. The proposal is viewed as another instance of Congress willing to perpetuate sacrifice zones and sacrifice constituencies, rather than pursue A Durable Vision for Permitting Reform (Webinar), Climate Justice Alliance. |
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| Related Coverage: - This is not the permit reform deal that was advertised, Symons Says, Substack
- Democrats Could Face A Data Center Backlash Of Their Own, Huff Post
- A ‘Bipartisan’ Bill to Dismantle the Nation’s Bedrock Environmental Law, The Revelator
- The Muddy Waters of BAAJA, Yale Journal on Regulation
- Why we’re opposing the new permitting reform bill, Environment America
- NEPA Review for Data Centers: When It Applies and What Changed in 2025, Black Forge
- What power plants are people trying to build? MISO edition, Kevin Kircher
- The Senate permitting bill would lock in data centers and nuclear waste on public lands. It only gets worse from there, West Wise
- Permitting reform would de-fang bedrock environmental law, High Country News
- Key Democrat warns permitting bill could create "gold rush for gas", Axios
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Contributions are tax-deductible as allowed by law. |
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