Environmental groups push back against the TPP
Environmental groups push back against the TPP
Claire Woodcock
Boulder Weekly
Recently, 450 U.S. environmental groups sent Congress a strong message: Vote down the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the largest proposed trade deal since 1994’s North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The environmental groups, a collective of landowner, indigenous rights and other allied organizations expressed their opposition to TPP by penning a letter to Congress, urging members to vote against the controversial trade agreement.
“We strongly urge you to stand up for healthy communities, clean air and water, Indigenous peoples, property rights, and a stable climate by committing to vote no on the TPP and asking the U.S. Trade Representative to remove from TPP any provision that empowers corporations to challenge government policies in extrajudicial tribunals,” said the letter, which was signed by organizations such as Sierra Club, Indigenous Environmental Network, Bold Alliance, SustainUS and Friends of the Earth.
In TPP tribunals, oil and gas companies couldn’t force Colorado or its communities to rescind fracking bans. They could, however, attempt to collect massive fines from the federal government for lost profits due to local regulations of cities, counties or states that inhibit unbridled oil and gas extraction in any way. We need look no further than NAFTA for an example of what the TPP will likely bring. TransCanada filed a $15 billion grievance in NAFTA’s version of ISDS against the U.S. for rejecting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in November 2015.
“Scientists tell us that we need to keep well over 80 percent of the world’s fossil fuels in the ground,” Waren says. “No one can be a climate champion and support trade deals like these, which provide polluters with a new corporate bill of rights and impede our ability to keep fossil fuels in the ground.”
