In an op-ed for The Hill, CPR Member Scholar Joel Mintz takes a look at the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and concludes that it’s insufficiently protective of the environment, the Administration’s assertions notwithstanding.
In his piece, he notes that the TPP “contains no mention whatsoever of what is widely seen as the most pressing threat to the global environment: disruption of the earth’s climate from the release of greenhouse gases.” Indeed, he notes, the TPP could encourage more fracking, thus contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. He goes on to write,
The most potentially damaging threat posed to U.S. environmental laws by the TPP, however, stems from the agreement’s mechanism for the settlement of inter-party disputes: the Investor State Dispute Resolution system (ISDS). This portion of the treaty creates an enormous opportunity for multi-national corporations—acting with the cooperation of friendly nations—to bypass domestic courts and undermine national and sub-national environmental requirements by raising grievances through arbitration panels. While the treaty indicates that arbitrators must have relevant expertise, and not be affiliated with or take instructions from any party to a dispute before them, it provides scant protection against the possibility that the rosters of qualified arbitrators will be dominated by representatives of corporate interests who view national environmental laws as needless obstacles to private profit-making.
Read Joel Mintz's piece in The Hill, here.
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Matthew Freeman | November 17, 2015
In an op-ed for The Hill, CPR Member Scholar Joel Mintz takes a look at the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and concludes that it’s insufficiently protective of the environment, the Administration’s assertions notwithstanding. In his piece, he notes that the TPP “contains no mention whatsoever of what is widely seen as the most pressing threat to the global […]
Katie Tracy | November 10, 2015
A startling new report by Oxfam America reveals just how dangerous it is to work inside a poultry processing plant. The report is packed full of alarming statistics and heart-breaking personal stories from brave workers, exposing an industry that fails to protect workers from well-known hazards and that discourages workers from reporting injuries when they […]
Matthew Freeman | November 9, 2015
Fostering informed debate about sound regulatory policy to protect health, safety, and the environment is one of the Center for Progressive Reform’s fundamental objectives. Presidential candidates, on the other hand, like to focus on the issues that get them elected, not necessarily the issues that are important. Unfortunately, the media is increasingly complicit in avoiding […]
Daniel Farber | November 4, 2015
How Law Schools Serve the Public Most people probably think of law schools, when they think of them at all, as places that train future lawyers. That’s true, and it’s important, but law schools do a lot more. Faculty scholarship makes a difference — law review articles laid the foundation for many of the ideas now guiding […]
| October 27, 2015
Here in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, polluted runoff from impervious surfaces, such as roofs, driveways, parking lots, and a vast network of roads, is a huge problem. In fact, while pollution from wastewater treatment plants has decreased significantly since EPA established the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) several years ago, and while overall […]
Daniel Farber | October 22, 2015
How to make health and safety a personal priority for industry officials. According to economists, firms have little reason to take into account the cost of externalities — that is to say, the harms their activities may impose on others. The traditional solutions are damage remedies or taxes to transfer the financial cost to the […]
Erin Kesler | October 21, 2015
This morning, CPR Member Scholar and University of Maryland School of Law professor Rena Steinzor testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste and Regulatory Oversight for a hearing focused on, “Oversight of Regulatory Impact Analysis for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regulations.” In her testimony, Steinzor noted the limitations of “Regulatory Impact […]
Evan Isaacson | October 19, 2015
It’s a staple of the right-wing assault on government that “bloated” government programs, like those intended to protect the environment, are a burden to taxpayers. In my home state of Maryland, the numbers demonstrate otherwise. The percentage of taxpayer dollars spent by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) is tiny and getting tinier. In […]
Evan Isaacson | October 15, 2015
Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a long overdue rule that was designed, according to EPA’s description, to move the agency “into the 21st Century.” Since many of the rules’ provisions still will not be in effect more than two decades after the turn of the century, this rulemaking plays right into the hands […]