Azul Statement on Big Ugly Bill, the Most Anti-environmental Bill of All Time
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@azul.org
Azul Statement on Big Ugly Bill, the Most Anti-environmental Bill of All Time
Washington, D.C. (July 3, 2025) – In response to the House passing of the Big Ugly Bill, Azul released the following statement from Founder and Executive Director Marce Gutierrez-Graudins:
“At a time of intensifying climate catastrophe, and building on the nefarious weakening of our institutional strongholds like NOAA, Congress has chosen to further weaken American leadership by passing the most anti-environmental bill of all time.
The ocean has always been a buffer — absorbing 90% of the planet’s excess heat. But the ocean is not bottomless. This big, harmful bill promotes increased carbon emissions by expanding subsidies for fracking and drilling while repealing critical regulatory and statutory authorities that enable effective climate change mitigation and protect communities vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Furthermore, repealing clean energy initiatives could push U.S. emissions 8-12% higher than the Paris Agreement, undermining global efforts to curb climate change. Such reckless policies not only betray our commitment to the planet but also jeopardize the health and future of generations to come.
Moreover, this bill leaves the United States structurally unprepared to soften climate change impacts by stripping away critical support systems, like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps vulnerable communities cope with rising energy costs and extreme heat in coastal cities increasingly burdened by concrete infrastructure and climate stress. All while doubling down on shameful subsidies for oil drilling and fracking. This bill prioritizes fossil fuel-related profits over the well-being of everyday people, who are bearing the heaviest burdens of a warming planet and an ocean that can no longer shield them from its devastating effects.
This Big Ugly Bill creates loopholes for fossil fuels, lets polluters bypass environmental reviews, forces 30 new offshore oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska’s coast, and kills clean energy manufacturing and jobs. The bill also eliminates funding for local infrastructure and habitat protection that helps coastal communities minimize damage from hurricanes, floods, and a rising sea level.
In prioritizing the needs of billionaires and big industries, it is no surprise that this bill is completely disconnected from public sentiment. Our 2024 National Azul Poll indicates that Latino voters of all political leanings overwhelmingly support efforts to ban offshore drilling. Instead, this bill guts funding to protect coastal communities, all while allowing for more pollution and offshore drilling.
This bill, which also manages to strip our fundamental health and welfare safety net, is an attempt to sacrifice everyday people’s well-being for the benefit of the few, exchanging long-term community health to codify billionaire tax cuts. Not surprisingly, this is a horrible deal for everyday people. There is no time to waste in standing up for bold, responsible, and humane budgets and policies.”
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Azul is an ocean justice organization working with Latino communities to protect our blue planet. Founded in 2011, Azul has developed – and executed – campaigns that achieved groundbreaking ocean conservation policy victories at local, national and international levels