Michael Brune is the executive director of the Sierra Club.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership would be an environmental disaster. The pact’s environment chapter outlining conservation rules, praised by the U.S. Trade Representative, cannot make up for the deal’s threats to our air, water and climate. That's why dozens of environmental organizations, like the Sierra Club, continue to wave red flags.

The Trans-Pacific deal would harm our environment, jeopardize the health of our families, and set us back instead of tackling the climate crisis head on.

Among our many concerns is the investor-state dispute settlement system included in the pact which would empower some of the world’s biggest polluters to challenge environmental protections in private trade tribunals. Similar rules in existing pacts have enabled corporations like ExxonMobil and Chevron to bring more than 600 investor-state cases against more than 100 governments. The TPP would expand this system of corporate privilege to thousands of corporations, including major polluters like BHP Billiton. The TPP would also require the Department of Energy to automatically approve all exports of natural gas to countries in the agreement, including Japan, the world’s biggest natural gas importer. Expediting those exports could open the floodgates to more fracking and dangerous climate emissions.

There’s little reason to believe that the rules in the environment chapter that deal with challenges such as illegal timber and wildlife trade would lead to meaningful changes on the ground. The U.S. is not known for holding other countries accountable in failing to live up to environmental commitments made in trade pacts. The U.S. has a pact with Peru, for instance, aimed at stopping illegal timber trade between the two countries. Yet illegal logging and associated trade are still rampant, and no one has been held accountable for violating the deal. That’s not the model of trade we want to replicate.

The TPP would harm our environment, jeopardize the health of our families and set us back instead of tackling the climate crisis head on. Congress should oppose this toxic deal.



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