TPP2.JPG

In this 2104 file photo, a protester holds a placard during a rally against the Trans-Pacific Partnership in Tokyo.

(AP Photo/File)

By Erica Stock

With the climate crisis worsening in Oregon and across the country, it's critical that we work together to ensure we continue on the path toward a 100 percent clean energy economy. While we've made monumental progress in recent months and years -- from defeating the Keystone XL pipeline to signing the Paris Agreement -- that progress could be severely undermined if the Trans-Pacific Partnership becomes a reality.

The partnership, a proposed trade deal between the United States and 11 other governments, could go before Congress as soon as the end of this year. If it passes, it would ship jobs overseas and increase threats to our air, water and climate.

We've already seen how trade deals hurt our jobs and our wages. Over 20 years ago, the U.S. was promised economic prosperity from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Instead, the deal has led to job displacement in all 50 states, including a net loss of 8,700 jobs in Oregon -- a loss that has hurt our economy and wages.

The trade partnership would exacerbate the problem. We'll be competing with corporations relocating to countries such as Vietnam, where the average minimum wage is a meager 70 cents per hour. At a time when we're fighting for fair, livable wages, this is beyond unacceptable.

It's not just jobs that are at stake; the health of our environment hangs in the balance, too. The partnership tilts the playing field in favor of multinational fossil fuel corporations, with an "investor-state dispute settlement" system allowing multinational corporations to sue governments in private trade tribunals, where they can demand our taxpayer dollars for environmental protections meant to keep us safe.

We saw this threat laid bare just recently when TransCanada, the company behind the destructive and unnecessary Keystone XL pipeline, announced its plans to use investor-state provisions in NAFTA to sue the U.S. government for $15 billion in foregone revenues from the blocked pipeline. That's the equivalent of about $100 from each individual income tax return.

Oregon's taxpayers shouldn't have to pay multinational corporations for American laws that protect the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food on our dinner tables. Yet corporations have launched hundreds of these lawsuits under similar trade deals, increasingly focusing their attacks on fossil fuel restrictions.

A recent decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reject the application of Canadian firm Veresen to build a liquefied natural gas export terminal in Coos Bay, Oregon, represents a major victory for local campaigners, communities and landowners. But this is just the type of decision that multinational fossil fuel corporations can challenge in private, unaccountable tribunals under trade deals like the partnership.

The trade partnership's corporate tribunals could also give a lifeline to explosive oil trains across Oregon and the United States at a time when many Oregonians push to restrict oil trains to protect our air, water and health. Following the explosive oil train derailment in June in the Columbia River Gorge, the Portland City Council unanimously passed a resolution to oppose oil trains in the Portland area. That action has been amplified to a call for a statewide moratorium on oil trains by the Oregon Department of Transportation and Oregon leaders, including, Reps. Suzanne Bonamici and Earl Blumenauer. But if the partnership comes to pass, multinational corporations would be able to challenge these resolutions and moratoriums using tribunal provisions.

In 2015, hundreds of thousands of activists fought against a bill in Congress to fast-track this trade deal. Ultimately, it squeaked by, and Congress lost its ability to have meaningful input in deals like the partnership. Instead, if the trade partnership bill comes to Congress, our representatives will only be able to vote yes or no.

We need Bonamici and Blumenauer to stand with our families, our jobs and our access to clean water and clean air by saying no to the toxic trade partnership.

As workers and environmentalists, we've stood up to big polluters before -- and won. As we face off against this polluter-friendly trade deal, we must stand strong and united to win again.

*

Erica Stock is the Oregon chapter director of the Sierra Club.