TPP - Stop the Pipeline to Ultimate Corporate Power

Fossil fuel corporations exhibit an insatiable quest for profit. Pushing for High Volume Horizontal Fracking wherever there is any shale underground, planning for a vast serpentine network of pipelines across the US to move fracked gas and oil, fighting governmental regulation, insisting their activities are safe and clean even as there are continuous “accidents” spilling oil or causing explosions.  The world is now facing the prospect of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Mother of all trade dreams for gas and oil corporations, as well as all other Big Corps. TPP covers all manner of trade and if passed it will set corporate interest above the interest of citizens and their governments (except for the monetary interest of representatives who’ve been paid off.

The early history of the TPP harkens back to the Bush 2 years and Obama took this baton from W and after a brief wait he has run like mad with it. There have been 17 rounds of meetings between the dozen or so countries now involved and the open ended nature of the agreement would allow countries to continue to join after the pact is agreed upon and the seal is set. Obama has expressed a requirement for TPP to be "fast tracked" without the normal path to ratification and implementation, with minimal debate and lack of amendments it would be hurried through with the usual hype that it is good for America without revealing that it is bad for consumers and many aspects of their lives.

The negotiations are as secret as possible. Even the Senate Chairman in charge of the committee with jurisdiction over the TPP is not allowed to read the proposals to the agreement; but the corporate agents have full access. Some parts of the TPP have been leaked, revealing the extensive powers sought for big corporate interest in this agreement.  As noted in a blog post in the Daily Kos, “This document is about reducing the regulation a sovereign entity may apply to an investment to the point that any investment is almost certain to pay out whether by actually carrying out the investment or through reimbursement for not being able to carryout the investment”  Here are some links to get more overall information on the TPP.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-fletcher/leak-cracks-open-transpac_b_1594675.html

https://movetoamend.org/transpacific-partnership-will-undermine-democracy-empower-transnational-corporations

TPP passage could place the rights of fossil fuel corporations above current and proposed US laws.  As little consideration FERC and the DOE now seem to have for the public good, TPP would gut concern for citizen and environmental matters. State and local moratoriums against HVHF and any regulations could be considered barriers to gas and oil profits. Compulsory integration is now used in some areas to frack land whose owner refuses to sign a land lease but around which land leases have been obtained.  TPP could allow fracking land without this eminent  “justification.”

http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/downloads/TPP-Factsheet.pdf


http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/11/23/fracking-ban-nafta-lawsuit.html


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ilana-solomon/fracking-causes-friction-_b_2146939.html

The Halliburton Loophole exclusion from the Clean Water Act requirement of listing of toxic chemicals used in fracking will seem insignificant as corporations could claim that restriction of harmful chemical use will restrict their anticipated profits. The world is seeing a fossil fuel pipeline building frenzy, no doubt in anticipation of passage of TPP and other “trade” agreements with only corporate interests addressed. Gas and oil pipelines could be allowed to take citizens’ and public land in the interest of fossil fuel profits.

http://elizabethmaymp.ca/submission-environmental-assessment-tpp

http://www.backbonecampaign.org/component/k2/item/85-nwasfossilfuelcorridor

While it is distasteful to direct anyone to a 1% publication, please hold your nose and read Forbes analysis of why fossil fuel pipelines are so plentiful, necessary, poverty-solving (?) and clean (!?!). This is the type of propaganda faced by world citizens who are concerned about the future. Big money is striving to riddle the world with pipelines and to extract and ship oil and natural gas to every pinch of the globe and the TPP would give unlimited power to profit from this.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/04/03/what-are-the-top-five-facts-everyone-should-know-about-oil-exploration/

http://shalestuff.com/controversy-2/natural-gas-world-pipelines-demand-exports/article06541

http://www.economist.com/node/21558456

There are many reasons to object to passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Granting super power to the fossil fuel industry with the resultant harm to people, animals and the environment is an important reason. Please research the TPP on your own and spread the word. What is not known about it is due to intentional secrecy. The worst thing for TPP is sunshine and transparency. Discuss with everyone you know and find a way to speak out against the TPP. In NYC, on May 28th at 6:30, find out what you can do about the TPP at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church at 1157 Lexington Avenue, between 79th and 80th Streets in Manhattan.

http://nyc.sierraclub.org/global-race-to-the-bottom/