As expected, the current president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, recently announced that he's stepping down. The outstanding question remains -- what will the process be to replace him?
Will it be run according to codes of conduct of the 21st century -- through a merit-based, open and transparent process? Or will the process go according to the 1940’s shadowy gentleman’s agreement that has ruled previous selections -- an agreement that dictates that…
Cheaters are lurking in the U.S. economy, corrupting what should be an honest game of production, commerce, and trade. “Cheater economics” refers to the corporate welfare system in which corporations are given special tax subsidies and granted access to loopholes for avoiding tax payments. Cheater economics drains away needed tax revenues, leaving governments with the lose-lose choice of running up deficits or reducing services, or both. Often this means cutbacks in environmental, health, and safety…
Most people are shocked to learn that 20 percent of the human genome has been patented by corporations and scientists, granting companies ownership and sole access to these fundamental building blocks of life. Patents on genes limit the ability of scientists and health researchers to learn more about gene-to-disease correlations and limit progress in fields that could benefit the health of all people, resulting in increasing prices for tests, impediments to alternative research…
Friends of the Earth and a coalition of 11 other groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday, February 16 to reverse the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s misguided approval of risky new nuclear reactors at the Vogtle site in Georgia. The suit asserts that the NRC violated federal environmental law in approving the reactors without accounting for the public safety and environmental implications of the ongoing nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. Jim Warren, the executive director…
The growing power of Chinese multinational corporations around the world, particularly in developing countries, is drawing a lot of attention. International companies complain that they are losing out to Chinese businesses benefiting from state support – government backing with few environmental and social requirements. Environmentalists and human rights activists are concerned that Chinese banks and companies may be spurring a race to the bottom by not adhering to international policies and norms such…
Wow. In 24 hours, the environmental movement and our progressive allies came together to send a huge, jarring wake-up call to senators wavering in the face of Big Oil’s threats and campaign coffers: reject any attempts to revive the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline—or face hundreds of thousands of people ready to hold you accountable.
On Tuesday afternoon, our broad coalition delivered more than 802,000 messages to the Senate, including more…
Yesterday President Obama fired the first shot in what is likely to be a series of budget skirmishes with House Republicans leading up to the November elections. Including controversial provisions such as an expiration of the Bush tax cuts for those making above $250,000 in his budget appears to be an attempt to differentiate himself from his political opponents. While Friends of the Earth strongly supports these provisions, the president’s budget is a stark…
Friends of the Earth has been monitoring the Medicine-Bow liquid coal facility since we first discovered that the Department of Energy is considering giving the project a loan guarantee. Medicine-Bow is a bellwether project because if completed it would be the first liquid coal facility in the U.S.
Recently, however, it has come to light that DKRW, the company behind Medicine-Bow, is trying to get the state of Wyoming as well as Carbon County, Wyoming…
UPDATE Tuesday, 10:30 a.m. EST: We've smashed through our initial goal of half a million and are now over 672,000 messages to the Senate! Unfortunately, some of Big Oil’s bought-and-paid-for friends in the Senate are putting the heat on as well: on Monday afternoon, a group of senators closely tied to Big Oil filed an amendment to the transportation bill that would ram through approval of Keystone XL. A vote could come as early as…
Today, the U.S. EPA signed a federal rule that will finalize EPA’s decision to approve a California state proposal to ban all sewage discharges from large cruise ships and most other large ocean-going ships to state marine waters along California’s 1,624 mile coast from Mexico to Oregon and surrounding major islands. Now California has banned even treated sewage from being discharged from large vessels in California’s marine waters.
California’s coastline includes some of…