[CTC] Congress Receives Over Half a Million Petitions To Reject TPP Over Climate Impacts

Thu Jun 30 04:27:33 PDT 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Contact: Cindy Carr -- Cindy.Carr at sierraclub.org <mailto:Cindy.Carr at sierraclub.org>
View as webpage <http://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2016/06/congress-receives-over-half-million-petitions-reject-tpp-over-climate-impacts>
Congress Receives Over Half a Million Petitions To Reject TPP Over Climate Impacts
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- While Members of Congress are at home in their districts during the 4th of July recess, environmental activists today left something -- more than half a million somethings -- at their Capitol doorsteps for their return. Just days after  Canadian oil company TransCanada brought a $15 billion claim against the U.S. under NAFTA over the rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, representatives of environmental organizations delivered to Congress more than 500,000 petitions denouncing the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal for its impacts on clean air, clean water, and climate disruption. The petition signatures were collected by the Sierra Club, Food and Water Watch, CREDO, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, SustainUS, 350.org <http://350.org/>, SumOfUs, Global Exchange, Green America, Daily Kos, and Citizens Trade Campaign.
“When constituents send over half a million messages asking Congress to reject the TPP because of the damage it could do to our fragile climate, Members of Congress who are serious about acting on climate should listen up,” said Debbie Sease, Senior Lobbying and Advocacy Director for the Sierra Club. “TransCanada’s absurd $15 billion claim emboldens us in our fight our fight against damaging trade agreements. We can’t let the TPP threaten future safeguards and undermine recent, hard-won victories like protecting the Atlantic coast from offshore drilling, halting new coal leasing on our public lands, banning fracking in New York, and rejecting Keystone XL.”

Representatives including Jared Huffman (CA-2), Paul Tonko (NY-20), and Raul Grijalva (AZ-3)  said they would accept the half-million petitions on behalf of their Congressional colleagues, who might be asked to vote on the toxic trade deal this year.
“The Trans-Pacific Partnership gives the biggest polluters a free pass to sidestep environmental safeguards, regardless of the consequences to climate or to communities, said Rep. Huffman. The bottom line is that the TPP is a flawed deal and I will continue to stand with Representatives Tonko and Grijalva, as well as hundreds of our colleagues and millions of Americans, in opposition.”
“The TPP is bad for America on multiple levels,” said Rep. Tonko. “Perhaps most concerning is the implications this raw deal means for our work to act on climate. By expanding the rights of polluters to challenge regulations, limiting support for renewables, and prioritizing our dependency on dangerous and dirty fuels, implementing the Trans-Pacific Partnership would not only roll back the incredible progress we have made to combat climate change, it would set us back significantly.”
“There is no longer simply an outcry or chorus from the American people opposed to the TPP – the opposition from all across the country is a full-blown roar,” Rep. Grijalva said.“The voices of half a million Americans should speak far louder to our policy makers than the profiteering of transnational corporations who are all too happy to outsource jobs and sue governments to weaken environmental protections. I want to thank all of the hardworking and committed organizations that helped make this petition drop happen, and I look forward to returning to Washington to fight by their side.”
“TPP may stand for Trans-Pacific Partnership, but it spells disaster for Pennsylvania and all other states in fracking's grip,” said Karen Feridun, Founder of Berks Gas Truth <http://www.gastruth.org/>. “The agreement would set in motion unregulated exports of liquefied natural gas to member nations and that means more fracking, more illnesses and deaths, more contaminated water and polluted air, more lost property value, and more devastation of our natural resources. Communities breaking under the impacts of 9,700 wells drilled since fracking began in Pennsylvania can't take the ramping up in drilling activity and infrastructure build out that TPP would ensure.”
Environmental opposition to the deal is mounting. Earlier in June, more than 450 environmental, landowner, Indigenous rights, and allied organizations sent a letter <http://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2016/06/more-450-groups-congress-pending-trade-deals-threaten-efforts-keep-fossil> to Congress warning that pending trade deals like the TPP threaten efforts to keep fossil fuels in the ground. 

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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 2.4 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org <http://www.sierraclub.org/>.

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