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May 4, 2012 | foe.org | donate | forward to a friend

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on our campaigns and ways to take action for a healthy and just world.

EPA: stop the rubber-stamping of KXL Countdown begins for construction of Keystone XL

News broke this morning that TransCanada has submitted its re-application to the State Department for the northern leg of the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline, from Alberta, Canada through Nebraska’s fragile Sandhills and Ogallala.

Incredibly, the State Department has said it will use parts of the previous environmental study to determine the fate of KXL Version 2.0 -- the same study that was woefully inadequate in addressing the potential impacts of this project and that was riddled with conflicts of interest.

In an effort to further evade a thorough, science-based review of its pipeline’s impacts, TransCanada has also submitted applications to the Army Corps of Engineers to build the southern leg of the Keystone XL from Cushing, Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast. The permit TransCanada applied for has been found insufficient for the project by EPA Region 6, which stated in November that TransCanada should instead submit individual Clean Water Act permits.

TransCanada’s application submission triggers a 45-day deadline by which the Corps must approve or deny the permits. The Corps can approve or reject the permits before the 45 days are over but if the agency does nothing, the permits are automatically approved by default, allowing TransCanada to proceed with construction. We will be working to stop the permit approval by pressuring EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to intervene -- stay tuned for ways to take action.

Read Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica’s statement. Read the memo to reporters about TransCanada’s secret applications on the southern segment.

Stop corporate tax dodgers, fund climate solutions

Stopping corporate tax dodgers

On Tax Day, International Finance Campaigner Karen Orenstein blogged about how we could fund solutions to the climate crisis by making multinational corporations pay their fair share -- through closing tax loopholes. We urged activists like you to ask your senators to co-sponsor the CUT Loopholes Act that would bring a sense of fairness back to the U.S. tax system and restore revenue that could be used to tackle critical global issues like climate change and poverty.

Read Karen’s blog post about the CUT Act. Take action: Tell senators to stop corporate tax dodgers.

New report on land grabbing in Uganda

Friends of the Earth International released a new report in April revealing the environmental degradation and human rights violations that result from land grabbing in Uganda. The report examines how subsistence farmers on the forested islands of Kalangala are affected by corporate leveling of forests and conversion into massive plantations for palm oil.

Read Communications Intern Kaitlin Froom's blog post about the report. Watch a video featuring John Muyisa, whose land was taken for palm oil.

Exposing dangerous cosmetics

For the first time in 30 years, Congress held a legislative hearing to examine cosmetics regulation. We worked with the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics to get the bill, the Safe Cosmetics Act, introduced last year. The bill would stop the $50 billion cosmetics industry from putting unlimited amounts of chemicals into personal care products with no required testing, no monitoring of health effects and inadequate labeling requirements.

Read Health and Environment Campaigner Ian Illuminato’s blog post on the bill. Watch the Story of Cosmetics.

Demand transparency in the Trans-Pacific free trade agreement

Tell President Obama to reject Keystone XL

Tell senators: Stop corporate tax dodging

Tell Governor Scott: Say no to GE mosquitoes in the Florida Keys

Local residents voice concerns about nuclear reactors

Trade deal injustice for the children of La Oroya

Groups urge support for Green Climate Fund

More corn ethanol could mean higher gas prices

Stop the New England tar sands oil pipeline

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