Blog
Enforceable environmental standards must be included in Trans Pacific trade agreement
Dateline Dallas: I arrived Tuesday, May 8, in this north Texas city for ten days of intense activity around a new regional trade pact called the Trans Pacific Partnership. During this week and a half, we have scheduled formal and informal meetings with negotiators, public teach-ins, civil… Read More
San Onofre’s steam generator failures could have been prevented
The San Onofre nuclear power plant, located between Los Angeles and San Diego, has been kept shut for the past three and half months by Southern California Edison, after radioactivity leaked into the atmosphere. Read More
GE mosquito release remains on indefinite hold — but for how long?
Last weekend the Keynoter newspaper in the Florida Keys reported that plans to release genetically engineered mosquitoes in Key West “remain on indefinite hold.” But Oxitec has submitted an application to the FDA for approval of its mosquitoes as an investigational new animal drug, meaning approval could come at any time and the public would have no warning or input. Read More
Sanders and Ellison champion elimination of fossil fuel subsidies.
Today Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Representative Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) introduced the End Polluter Welfare Act, legislation that goes further than any previous bill to unwind the web of government subsidies for the fossil fuels industry. If enacted the bill would save taxpayers over $10 billion a year. There… Read More
Fossil fuel subsidies: a social justice perspective
Friends of the Earth has long been at the forefront of the effort to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. These subsidies perpetuate our dependence on the dirty energy sources of the past, rob us of our capacity to fund energy solutions of the future, and undermine any attempts to implement smart… Read More
Old trade deal wine in new bottle
U.S. model for Trans Pacific trade pact will generate investment lawsuits threatening the environment In 2001 William Greider, the famed progressive journalist, wrote about the North American Free Trade Agreement’s investment chapter in The Nation: “Multinational investors can randomly second-guess the legitimacy of environmental laws or any other public-welfare… Read More
Danger from spent nuclear fuel lingers long after memory of disaster fades
Bob Alvarez serves as a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies and as a senior analyst at Friends of the Earth, focusing on nuclear disarmament, the safety risks of nuclear reactors and, in particular, the vulnerability of radioactive spent fuel that is piling up at reactor sites across… Read More
Bioeconomy Blueprint or biotechnology boost?
Yesterday morning the White House released its National Bioeconomy Blueprint which “outlines steps that agencies will take to drive the bioeconomy—economic activity powered by research and innovation in the biosciences—and details ongoing efforts across the Federal government to realize this goal.” Unfortunately, this new bioeconomy is not as green… Read More
New report on land grabbing in Kalangala, Uganda
Friends of the Earth International released a new report earlier this week, titled Land, Life and Justice, revealing the environmental degradation and human rights violations that are the result of land grabbing occurring in Uganda. The report focuses on the impact land grabs are having on communities in the forested… Read More
Broad opposition speaks out against E15 bill
On Thursday, April 19th the House subcommittee on the environment and economy held a hearing on H.R. 4345, the Domestic Fuels Protection Act of 2012, which provides liability protection for oil companies, gas retailers, and car manufacturers for any environmental or economic damage caused by the use of E15,… Read More