WASHINGTON— More than 140 environmental groups warned members of Congress today about the potentially catastrophic consequences of the “project certainty” provisions in the so-called Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026.

The provisions could block federal agencies under the next president from taking strong action to address the climate crisis, toxic pollution and other harms to the environment.

Today’s letter urges Congress to reject the vague and overbroad language in the bill prohibiting agencies from taking any actions that “interfere” with “operation at full capacity.” This language could gut any federal agencies’ abilities to take routine actions, including routine enforcement, to protect people and the environment because the bill does not define what it means for an agency to interfere with a project.

The environmental groups’ concerns echo warnings from others including the Environmental Protection Network, a network of more than 800 former EPA career staff and political appointees, as well as independent legal scholars and a prominent former Department of Justice lawyer.

John Podesta, former White House chief of staff, stated on Friday that project certainty provisions represented “a huge mistake” and will hand President Trump “a loaded howitzer to go after public lands, to permit stuff that even if it’s illegal can’t be reversed by the courts.”

“Project certainty is the Death Star that will leave the EPA and many other federal agencies virtually powerless for the next president,” said Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Permitting bill proponents have been so fixated on Trump’s war on offshore wind that they didn’t even consider how their deal will harm the next president’s ability to govern. The fossil fuel industry and tech oligarchs must be salivating over these provisions. Project certainty will accomplish what Elon Musk and DOGE never dreamed possible — the full evisceration of the EPA’s power.”

The letter highlights the most dangerous consequences of the project certainty provisions:

• Section 1401 would lock in the Trump administration’s weakened pollution standards and interpretations regarding every environmental law that were in place on or after September 16, 2026, prohibiting any alteration or amendment to any existing permit or taking any that interfere with a project’s “operation at full capacity.” Even if an agency attempted to issue new environmental regulations, polluters could sue for damages equal to 25% to 50% of a project’s cost up to the present day, leading to tens or hundreds of billions in damages that would be paid out through a judgment fund to those polluters.
• Section 1402 allows polluters across dozens of energy and mining categories to sue the government for “disparate treatment” and collect up to 100% of a project’s expected construction costs from taxpayers through the judgment fund based on allegations of policy “bias” on a 5-year lookback period. This lookback period would start at 2027 and would be dominated by Trump-era fast-tracking of fossil fuels and stalling of clean energy projects, thereby making it impossible for a future president to deny any fossil fuel infrastructure in the future no matter how damaging to the climate.

The groups warn in the letter that “Section 1401’s financial penalties and potential for gross abuse makes Donald Trump’s January 6th Slush Fund look like pocket change in comparison.”