August, 02 2010, 02:39pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Claudette Juska, Researcher Specialist, 202-319-2475;
Joe Smyth, Media Officer, 831-566-5647, joe.smyth@greenpeace.org
Government Industry Links and Hidden Causes of Gulf Disaster to Be Exposed Through Law
Greenpeace Submits Twenty Seven Freedom of Information Act Inquiries, Two State Public Records Act requests on BP Oil Disaster
WASHINGTON
Greenpeace is using legal means to expose the true scale of the
impact and the real causes of the Gulf oil disaster, describing links
between government and the oil industry as critical.
Greenpeace Friday submitted 27 separate Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) requests to multiple federal government agencies and two Public
Records Act requests to the offices of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, seeking information about
chemical dispersants, government communications with BP and other oil
companies, underwater oil plumes, impacts to marine wildlife, and oil
drilling safety regulation.
"The Gulf oil disaster and the efforts to hide and downplay its impacts
have revealed the extent of the oil industry's grip on our government,"
said Greenpeace Research Director Kert Davies, "Scientific researchers,
policymakers and the broader public deserve to know the full scope of
this disaster and what the government knows and isn't telling."
The federal agencies receiving Greenpeace FOIA requests include the:
* Department of Interior: Minerals Management Service/Bureau of Ocean
Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement, Fish and Wildlife Service,
and Geological Survey
* Environmental Protection Agency
* National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
* Navy
* Coast Guard
* Federal Aviation Administration
The scope of these FOIA requests were derived from our ongoing field
research, tips from local activists and reporters. Some of the FOIA
requests seek information on:
Chemical dispersants:
Internal communications within and between the Environmental Protection
Agency, U.S. Coast Guard and BP concerning directives on dispersant use
and exemptions granted to BP by the Coast Guard (EPA, USCG)
Details of the effectiveness of sub-sea dispersant application, how the
Environmental Protection Agency has monitored BP's use of dispersants,
and the point at which dispersants have a greater environmental impact
than leaked oil (EPA)
Flight records of C-130 aircraft carrying chemical dispersants (FAA, USCG)
Wildlife impacts:
Details of any communications about "carcass collection facilities" in the Gulf region (USFWS)
Details regarding turtles being killed in controlled oil burns in the Gulf region (USCG, NOAA, USFWS)
Details of any and all communications or information regarding any of 23
endangered, threatened, or species of concern in the Gulf region
including sperm whales and sea turtles (NOAA, USCG)
Details of U.S. Navy flights contracted for whale and dolphin sightings in the Gulf region (Navy)
Oil drilling safety regulation:
Details of communication between the United States Coast Guard and
ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, and/or ConocoPhillips concerning the safety of
oil rigs in the Gulf and/or the term "blowout preventers" (USCG)
Details of all internal communications regarding the 23 blowouts that have occurred on oil rigs in the Gulf since 2006 (BOEMRE)
Details of any information concerning the 27,000 abandoned wells in the Gulf (BOEMRE/MMS)
Details of communications between the Minerals Management Service and
the Offshore Operators Committee Deep Spills Working Group (BOEMRE/MMS)
Details of violations and inspections and the certification process of the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port facility (USCG)
Clean up operations:
Details of all communications regarding BP employees or contractors concerning their authority to police public lands. (USCG)
Underwater oil plumes:
Internal communications from NOAA missions to search for underwater oil plumes (NOAA)
Details of all meetings and correspondence between the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration and BP regarding underwater oil plumes
(NOAA)
Communication between oil companies and state offices:
Details of any and all internal and external communications between
Governor Bobby Jindal or any of his staff and the following companies:
BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, and/or the American Petroleum
Institute (Office of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal)
Details of any and all internal and external communications between
Governor Haley Barbour or any of his staff and the following companies:
BP, Shell, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, and/or the American Petroleum
Institute (Office of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour)
A full list of the 27 FOIAs and two State Public Records Act requests
can be found here:
https://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog/2010/08/02/greenpeace-submits-twenty-nine-inquiries
Greenpeace's team on the Gulf Coast has been providing and supporting an
independent assessment of the impacts of the oil disaster to the
ecosystem and the wildlife and communities that depend on it. In August,
the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise will begin a three month expedition
supporting independent scientists to investigate the impacts to Gulf
wildlife, underwater oil plumes, and more.
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
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Database Exposes 'Illicit Network Undermining Democracy Around the World'
Yanis Varoufakis hailed the effort as "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
Apr 17, 2024
"Coups. Assassinations. Riots. Detentions. Disinformation. We know the tactics that have been deployed to undermine our democracies. But who is behind them?"
Progressive International (PI) asks and answers this and other questions with an extensive new database published Wednesday that connects the dots in what the leftist group calls the "Reactionary International"—a loose global network of right-wing leaders and organizations working to subvert democratic institutions.
PI calls it an "illicit network undermining democracy around the world."
"Today is a mask-off moment for the Reactionary International and the parties, politicians, judges, journalists, foundations, think tanks, tech platforms, NGOs, activists, financiers, and entrepreneurs that comprise it," PI said.
"After a year of preparation, we finally open the doors to our new research consortium, exposing the global network of reactionary forces that corrode our democracies, destroy our planet, and drive us closer to world war," the group added.
"The twin insurrections at the U.S. Capitol in 2021 and Brasília's Three Powers Plaza in 2023 left no doubt about the international coordination of reactionary forces," PI argued. "Yet far too little is known about the entities of this network, their sources of financing, and their institutional allies operating inside our political systems."
Ultimately, PI aims to "support democratic systems to become more resilient to their insidious tactics."
From leaders like Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and former U.S. President Donald Trump—the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee—to evangelical Christian groups influencing laws in African countries criminalizing LGBTQ+ people and tech companies empowering ubiquitous state surveillance, Reactionary International is a who's-who of the world's right-wing forces.
A cursory search of the database's contents shows users can:
- Learn about Israel's NSO, Rayzone, and Team Jorge, and how a team of Tel Aviv tech entrepreneurs fuel unrest in Latin America;
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- Explore the global network of the Falun Gong, its Trump-connected media outlet The Epoch Times, and its traveling dance troupe known as Shen Yun.
Yanis Varoufakis, a PI member and secretary-general of the left-wing Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, called the database "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
PI invites the public to contribute to the database.
"Together, we will not only name, shame, and expose the forces of the far right—but also dismantle their network of complicity," the group said.
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GOP State AGs Ask EPA to 'Eviscerate' Crucial Environmental Justice Tool
"Many of the states that have signed the petition have historically allowed these harmful facilities to be placed in predominantly Black and brown communities," said one advocate.
Apr 17, 2024
Led by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, Republican leaders in 23 states on Tuesday filed a petition making clear their aim to allow petrochemical companies and other corporations to continue operating pollution-causing facilities without regard for the "disparate impact" they can have on low-income communities of color.
The attorneys general of states including Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas wrote to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan, asking him to amend Title VI under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The law prohibits recipients of federal funds from discriminating against residents based on race and national origin and allows residents to petition the EPA arguing that state agencies have intentionally discriminated or disparately impacted a particular community.
Title VI has underpinned hundreds of legal cases, including recent EPA investigations into the 85-mile stretch of land in Louisiana known as Cancer Alley, where dozens of petrochemical plants have been built and health experts have observed a disproportionate number of cancer cases and other medical problems among the predominantly Black population.
The attorneys general said they object to the Biden administration's use of Title VI to "advance what it calls 'environmental justice,'" and complained that the EPA aims to create "a condition in which no racially or economically defined group experiences adverse environmental impacts."
Andre Segura, vice president of litigation at the environmental legal group Earthjustice, said Wednesday that the Republican attorneys general aim to "eviscerate civil rights protections just to make it easier for industrial polluters to continue with business as usual."
"Everyone should be alarmed by these outrageous efforts," said Segura. "The fact is, many of the states that have signed the petition have historically allowed these harmful facilities to be placed in predominantly Black and brown communities, without regard for the health and safety of residents."
Manuel Fernandez, president of Miami-Dade County Democrats in Florida, said the effort was "embarrassing" and called on Moody to resign.
The petition was filed three months after U.S. District Court Judge James Cain Jr., an appointee of former President Donald Trump in Louisiana, ruled that Title VI requirements amount to "government overreach."
The EPA halted its Title VI investigation into the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) last year a month after Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican, sued the agency over its Title VI regulations. The EPA had been probing whether the LDEQ placed the historically Black town of St. John the Baptist Parish at risk by allowing companies to build petrochemical plants nearby.
There are more than 50 pending cases regarding Title VI violations, Earthjustice said.
"These decades-old Title VI regulations are critical tools for the federal government to use to ensure that funding is not used to perpetuate this toxic legacy," said Segura, "and the EPA should swiftly reject this petition."
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GOP Governors Show 'How Scared They Are' of Workers Organizing With UAW
Congressman Greg Casar said the Republicans behind a new joint statement "sound more like corporate lobbyists than governors."
Apr 17, 2024
As Volkswagen workers in Tennessee began voting on whether to join the United Auto Workers, progressive critics on Wednesday continued to call out six Southern GOP governors for jointly saying they "are highly concerned about the unionization campaign driven by misinformation and scare tactics that the UAW has brought into our states."
Govs. Kay Ivey of Alabama, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Tate Reeves of Mississippi, Henry McMaster of South Carolina, Bill Lee of Tennessee, and Greg Abbott of Texas issued their statement in response to "the largest organizing drive in modern American history," which the UAW launched after major contract wins following a strike targeting the Big Three automakers—General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis—last year.
"As governors, we have a responsibility to our constituents to speak up when we see special interests looking to come into our state and threaten our jobs and the values we live by," the Republican leaders said, claiming that "unionization would certainly put our states' jobs in jeopardy" and the UAW is "making big promises to our constituents that they can't deliver on."
"We have serious reservations that the UAW leadership can represent our values. They proudly call themselves democratic socialists and seem more focused on helping President [Joe] Biden get reelected than on the autoworker jobs being cut at plants they already represent," the governors added, nodding to the union's January endorsement of the Democrat—UAW president Shawn Fain also called the presumptive Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, a "scab."
What actually threatens American workers?\n\u274c Anti-union, anti-worker propaganda like this\n\ud83d\udcb0 Corps that put profits over people\n\u26d1\ufe0f Safety standards not being met\n\n@GovAbbott & @GovernorKayIvey sound more like corporate lobbyists than governors here. @UAW backs American workers!— (@)
The Economic Policy Institutesaid Wednesday that the governors' anti-union statement "clearly shows how scared they are that workers organizing with UAW to improve jobs and wages will upend the highly unequal, failed anti-worker economic development model of Southern states."
Responding to the statement on social media, the Congressional Labor Caucus declared that "we speak up when we see threats to workers' rights. Workers must be allowed to choose whether to form a union on their own—free from influence from their employers or politicians. Shame on these governors for putting out this anti-union propaganda."
After Ivey shared the statement on social media, Nina Turner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy, asked, "Better wages and working conditions are against the values of your state?"
MSNBC's Chris Hayes was even snarkier, jokingly calling the statement "yet more evidence of the populist, pro-worker turn of the Trump-era GOP."
The UAW vote in Chattanooga, Tennessee is set to wrap up on Friday. Then, attention is expected to shift to Vance, Alabama. Workers at a nonunion Mercedes-Benz plant there submitted a petition to the National Labor Relations Board earlier this month requesting an election to join the union.
Noting Ivey's social media post about the statement, Diana Hussein, who does communications work for the UAW, said: "She's mad cuz she wants to keep the Alabama discount that leaves workers behind. No more! #StandUpUAW."
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, also took aim at Ivey, saying, "You used Alabama taxpayers' money to have state troopers escort out-of-state scabs to break the strike of YOUR constituents."
Nelson explained that she was referring to the "hardworking" United Mine Workers of America members employed by Warrior Met, "who were fighting for the right to see their families more than a few days a year."
More Perfect Union told Ivey that "unions only threaten your values if you value denying workers a living wage and good benefits."
In contrast with the Republican governors, around two-thirds of the Senate Democratic Caucus in January wrote to 13 nonunion automakers—including Mercedes and Volkswagen—urging them not to illegally block UAW organizing at their plants.
"We are concerned by reporting at numerous automakers that management has acted illegally to block unionization efforts," the senators stressed, citing multiple examples. "These retaliatory actions are hostile to workers' rights and must not be repeated if further organizing efforts are made by these companies' workers. We therefore urge you all to commit to implementation of a neutrality agreement at your manufacturing plants."
Welcoming their letter, Fain said that "every autoworker in this country deserves their fair share of the auto industry's record profits, whether at the Big Three or the Nonunion 13. We applaud these U.S. senators for standing with workers who are standing up for economic justice on the job."
"It's time for the auto companies to stop breaking the law and take their boot off the neck of the American autoworker," the union leader added, "whether they're at Volkswagen, Toyota, Tesla, or any other corporation doing business in this country."
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