Tell the Senate: Just Say No to Wilderness and Wildlife Destroying Energy Bill

Right now, special interests are trying to pass one of the most environmentally damaging energy bills ever contemplated in Congress. If it becomes law, the energy bill will gut the Wilderness Act and many important wildlife protection laws.

The list of riders attached to the House’s so-called "Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016" (S.2012) is appalling. If passed, the bill would:

• Allow almost unlimited damage to Wildernesses if done for even a remote connection to hunting, fishing, recreational shooting, or wildlife management;
   
• Permit such damaging projects as dam construction, construction of “temporary” roads; logging or chaining if done for wildlife browse; motor vehicle driving; bulldozer and backhoe use; construction of cabins if done for any connection to fish or wildlife; and much more;
   
• Effectively strip the wild from Wilderness by allowing managers to engage in any and all sorts of habitat manipulation projects, including logging, burning, chaining, dam building, or similar projects, as well as predator control or any other action designed to provide more game species.
   
• Prohibit environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for any of the above damaging projects;
   
• Remove the wolf in the Great Lakes States and Wyoming from the protections of the Endangered Species Act; and
   
• Expedite mining on public lands without meaningful environmental review.