When President Obama rejected the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline to bring tar sands crude across our border and into the U.S., it was a huge victory for our health, safety and environment. It was the president’s decision to make — yet incredibly, our country is now being sued to the tune of $15 billion in damages by the Canadian pipeline developer TransCanada.
If Congress passes the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the massive corporate power-grab “trade” deal championed by President Obama, it would actually grant more foreign corporations, like TransCanada, powers to challenge U.S. safeguards to our air, water and climate.1
Congress has yet to vote on the TPP, which was ratified in February. The TPP is opposed by all the candidates for president, so if we can hold the line in Congress, we can stop it from becoming law.
Tell Congress: The TPP is a disaster for our environment. Vote NO on the TPP!
The TPP was written and negotiated in absolute secrecy, and it’s easy to see why. It would eviscerate broad swaths of regulations that protect consumers, workers, the environment, and the soundness of our financial system.
The environmental implications alone are alarming:2
- The TPP would give corporations in a dozen more countries power over our legal system, with access to the same legal mechanism TransCanada used to sue the U.S. — a legal panel of international lawyers set up under NAFTA which is not accountable to appeal or review to American courts. Corporations could sue to oppose regulations reducing methane emissions from fracking, increasing offshore drilling safety, or stopping oil and gas drilling on public lands.
- The TPP would require the U.S. Department of Energy to automatically approve all exports of natural gas to countries in the deal, thereby removing our government’s ability to make decisions about our energy future while expanding dangerous fracking and climate emissions.
- The agreement lacks strong, enforceable provisions to crack down on environmentally destructive activities like illegal logging, and overfishing.
Climate change demands urgent and swift action by governments to reduce carbon pollution and stop environmental destruction. But the TPP would grow the dangerous precedent of taking power out of the hands of our leaders, and putting it into the hands of international corporations who value profit above all else.
Tell Congress: Don’t trade away environmental protections. Vote NO on the TPP!
- “Keystone Lawsuit Illustrates Enviros’ Big Problem With TPP,” Bill Moyers, 1/18/16
- “A DIRTY DEAL: How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Threatens our Climate,” The Sierra Club