Archive for the ‘Climate Change’ Category

January10

Chamber plays Chicken Little (again)

By: Robert Weissman

Note: Public Citizen runs U.S. Chamberwatch, a project designed to shed light on the funding and practices of the largest private interest lobbyist in America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."Robert Weissman" "Public Citizen president"

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue today delivered his annual State of American Business address. As he paints a fantastical picture of the unfair burdens imposed on Big Business, Donohue neglects to mention a few things, most importantly, that corporate profits are at record highs.

Of course, there’s nothing surprising here, since he gives pretty much the same speech every year. Still, a few comments are in order.

First, isn’t it a bit much for the rich and powerful to endlessly call for cutbacks in the nation’s leading anti-poverty programs, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid? If Tom Donohue is concerned about the government’s fiscal situation, perhaps he should acknowledge the unreasonably low effective tax rate on corporations. Or declare that it’s outrageous for two dozen profitable Fortune 500 companies to pay zero in federal income tax in the past four years.

Second, he whines about a “coming flood of new regulations,” even as we still suffer from the Great Recession, a direct outgrowth of too little regulation and enforcement. This complaint comes despite no evidence that regulation meaningfully impedes job growth and despite lots of evidence that regulation protects and creates new jobs (not to mention making jobs safer, better paid and equitability available).

Third, he urges more NAFTA-style trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a NAFTA-on-steroids that would encumber every country on the Pacific Rim. This call will come despite an abundance of evidence that this trade model has cost jobs, lowered living standards and undermined our sovereign ability to set our own safety and health protections.

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Posted in: Activism, Climate Change, Consumer Protection, Environment, Ethics, Litigation, Open Government, Regulation, Social Justice, Trade, Uncategorized0 comments

November28

Government right to ban BP

By: Tyson Slocum

Public Citizen applauds today’s decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to temporarily block BP PLC from receiving new federal contracts. The agency, which noted in a press release the company’s lack of b"Tyson Slocum" "Public Citizen"usiness integrity, has taken exactly the right step. We additionally applaud the Department of Interior’s indications, in press reports, that it will block BP from new oil and natural gas leases on federal lands.

BP’s recent felony guilty pleas for the deaths of 11 people and the dumping of 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico demanded such an action. The EPA hasn’t released details of the decision, but we believe the following criteria should be part of the debarment order

  • The EPA has defined the debarment period as “temporary,” saying it will last until the company can show that it meets federal business standards. The debarment period must be for the duration of the five-year probation the company received when it pled guilty to criminal violations. Reconsideration of debarment should not occur until after the five-year probation period has concluded.
  • The debarment must include all BP subsidiaries.
  • While EPA debarment is effective government-wide, individual agencies can request and receive waivers from the debarment order. We urge that no agency – including the Department of Defense – seek or obtain such a waiver.
  • If another violation of federal law or regulation occurs during the debarment and probation period, the debarment should become permanent.

Note: our featured action. Thanks to our activists for their outreach on this issue.

Tyson Slocum is Public Citizen’s energy program director.  You can follow him on Twitter @TysonSlocum.

Posted in: Climate Change, Regulation, Uncategorized1 comments

November9

Progress Waddles Forward: Risks and Opportunities in the Lame Duck Session

By: Rick Claypool

a photo of a duck

Flickr photo by D H Wright

Taken literally, the term “lame duck” refers to an injured duck that is unable to keep up with its flock.

On Tuesday, November 13, the month-long “lame duck” session of the 112th Congress will begin – and we’ll get a hint of whether the next session will be as plagued as the current session with partisan obstructionism.

If you have members of Congress who were voted out on Election Day or are retiring, the next few weeks is their last chance to make their mark. These lawmakers are the lame ducks.

In Congress, lame ducks will be indeed be left to fend for themselves as their “flock” of reelected peers prepares to join the newly elected  (or “freshman”) members in January, when the 113th Congress is sworn in.

Lame duck lawmakers are notoriously unpredictable. They no longer need to worry about raising money for reelection, so they are more free to stand up to corporate lobbyists and other moneyed interests.

However, because they’re not seeking reelection, they’re also less accountable to their constituents. Worse, they’re vulnerable to offers of cushy jobs at lobbying firms, where former lawmakers all-too-often receive six-figure salaries in exchange for doing Corporate America’s bidding and perpetuate Washington’s “revolving door” problem.

The upcoming lame duck session (scheduled to last from November 13 until December 14) is fraught with opportunities and threats:

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Posted in: Activism, Campaign Finance, Climate Change, Congress, Congress Watch Column, Energy, Financial Reform, Regulation28 comments

September27

U.S. Chamber of Commerce, revolving doors and climate change denial

By: Robert Weissman

Well, it looks like the Chamber of Commerce is doubling down on efforts to obstruct climate change solutions and on revolving door corruption, all in one play."Robert Weissman" "Public Citizen president"

Politico reported earlier this week that Matthew Hite, senior counsel to U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) on the Environment and Public Works Committee, is leaving for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he will be policy counsel for the environment and agriculture committee in the Chamber’s environment, technology and regulatory affairs division.

Senator Inhofe, you’ll recall, is the author of the book, “The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future,” and has made a name for himself mocking the science of climate change. Here’s a typical Inhofe statement:

“It’s also important to question whether global warming is even a problem for human existence. Thus far no one has seriously demonstrated any scientific proof that increased global temperatures would lead to the catastrophes predicted by alarmists. In fact, it appears that just the opposite is true: that increases in global temperatures may have a beneficial effect on how we live our lives.”

There must be people out there who deny the science of gravity, but they don’t matter much. But when powerful people like Senator Inhofe, or powerful interests like the Chamber of Commerce, deny or dispute the science of climate change — or, more importantly, act to block policies urgently needed to prevent catastrophic threats to the planet — it’s another matter altogether.

To be clear, the Chamber isn’t Inhofe. It doesn’t deny that climate change is occurring or suggest that it is desirable. Presumably, Matthew Hite won’t be advancing these positions at the Chamber, either. What the Chamber is doing, however, is helping lead the charge against meaningful policies to control greenhouse gas pollution and avert catastrophic climate change.

It’s also worth remarking on the revolving door issue. It’s taken as an article of faith in Washington, D.C., that this is just how things work: You leave government service and go to work for the corporate interests over whom you previously exercised oversight. But while it may be the norm, it’s not right. Jack Abramoff suggests that the revolving door is perhaps the chief corrupting influence in Congress.

So, it’s all business as usual perhaps, but dangerous business indeed.

Robert Weissman is the president of Public Citizen.

Posted in: Activism, Climate Change0 comments

July27

U.S. Chamber’s Pro-Fracking Tour Proves Its Limited Knowledge of Energy Realities

By: Tyson Slocum

"Tyson Slocum" "Public Citizen"

Come one, come all. Gather ’round for a pair of misguided tours touting the benefits of fracking, one organized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the other by the American Petroleum Institute.

The Big Business mouthpieces are hosting a series of rallies and spending millions in political advertising in – what a shock – key election swing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, urging the Obama administration to do more to promote hydraulic fracturing. But the Chamber must have been too busy flapping its jowls to read today’s Wall Street Journal story (and others) describing how major natural gas producers are posting disappointing returns and even losses because – get this – there’s too much natural gas production already. Case in point: The U.S. recently surpassed Russia as the leading natural gas producer on the planet.

Not only is the surplus more than our market can consume, it is more than our atmosphere can handle. Advances in extraction technologies are allowing big polluters to get to resources that once seemed out of reach. That may mean short-term profits for the gas and oil industry but, for the rest of us, it means adjusting to the painful realities of climate change. Pushing the fracking agenda is bad business any way you look at it.

This proves that the Chamber is pushing a political, rather than a business, agenda. This is particularly the case as the Chamber dismisses genuine environmental and public health concerns associated with fracking as pandering to Obama’s “environmental voter base.” How cynical can you get: a corporate trade association dismissing genuine grassroots concerns about water contamination, and increased emissions from wells and trucks? Shame on the Chamber: There is no such thing as benign fossil fuel extraction. There are real impacts on real people living across America, many of whom are organizing this weekend in the first national rally against fracking. The Chamber’s dismissal of their concerns as political pandering is offensive.

A sound energy plan is one that would empower Main Street communities to take the lead on sustainable energy independence through the promotion of rooftop solar, energy efficiency incentives, mass transit and other job-creating clean energy investments.

Maybe it’s best for the Chamber to give its advertising expenditures to charity and leave energy policy to those who actually know what they’re talking about.

For information on this weekend’s events, visit: http://www.energyvox.org/2012/07/25/stop-the-frack-attack/.

Posted in: Activism, Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Regulation, Transportation0 comments

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