October, 27 2015, 10:45am EDT
Oceana Launches Lawsuit Against Federal Government to Save Dusky Sharks in Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic
Thousands of Dusky Sharks Are Killed Every Year in U.S. Longline Fisheries, in Violation of Federal Law
WASHINGTON
Today, Oceana, which was represented by Earthjustice, sued the federal government to end the overfishing of dusky sharks in U.S. waters. Dusky shark populations off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts have plummeted by 85 percent in the past two decades as a result of overfishing and bycatch - the incidental capture of fish and ocean wildlife. In 2000, the National Marine Fisheries Service prohibited fishermen from targeting dusky sharks and bringing them to the dock, in an attempt to help rebuild the population. However, the Fisheries Service did not account for fishing vessels incidentally catching and killing dusky sharks as bycatch. Since that time, government data shows that as many as 75,000 dusky sharks may have been caught and discarded as bycatch in the Atlantic and Gulf.
In the lawsuit filed today, Oceana claims the Fisheries Service violated the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the primary law governing federal fisheries, by failing to end the overfishing of dusky sharks. Oceana also claims the federal government failed to establish an annual catch limit and measures to enforce such a limit as well as failed to revise dusky shark management measures once it became apparent that the current measures were not rebuilding the population to healthy levels, as required by law.
Oceana campaign director Lora Snyder released the following statement:
"The Fisheries Service has acknowledged for years that dusky sharks are critically depleted and in serious trouble, yet this population is still being overfished due to federal inaction.
Three years ago, the Fisheries Service had a chance to address the situation when it proposed setting bycatch limits and closing certain dusky "hotspots" to fishing. While this proposal was strongly supported by scientists, it was eventually withdrawn by the Fisheries Service, again leaving dusky sharks unprotected and overfished.
The federal government is legally required to take action to recover this population. Any further delay is unacceptable."
Dusky sharks grow slowly and have low reproductive rates, rendering the species highly vulnerable to overfishing. Over 4,000 dusky sharks are snagged every year in fishing gear meant to catch other species such as grouper, snapper, swordfish and other shark species. Many of these dusky sharks - as much as 80 percent - die by the time they are hauled to the boat and tossed overboard. Federal fisheries law required the Fisheries Service to cap the number of dusky sharks killed due to fishing effort by 2010, but it still has not done so.
"Dusky sharks are an integral part of a healthy ocean, but their numbers have been decimated by years of abuse," said Andrea Treece, the Earthjustice attorney representing Oceana in this case. "Our nation's fisheries laws require the agency to arrest this decline and to immediately rebuild this vulnerable keystone ocean predator."
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.
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UN Puts Out 'Truly Damning Report Card' for Climate Action Before Global Summits
"This report is a wake-up call to the injustice of the climate crisis and a pivotal opportunity to correct course," said one expert.
Sep 08, 2023
"The United Nations' polite prose glosses over what is a truly damning report card for global climate efforts. Carbon emissions? Still climbing. Rich countries' finance commitments? Delinquent. Adaptation support? Lagging woefully behind."
That's how Ani Dasgupta, president and CEO of the World Resources Institute, began his response to a "global stocktake" report released Friday by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ahead of two global summits.
"This report is a wake-up call to the injustice of the climate crisis and a pivotal opportunity to correct course," Dasgupta continued. "We already knew the world is failing to meet its climate goals, but leaders now have a concrete blueprint underpinned by a mountain of evidence for how to get the job done."
"There are a few bright spots worth celebrating," he noted. "But overall, the report finds there are more gaps than progress—gaps that can only be erased by transformational change across systems like energy, food, land, and transport. The future of our planet depends on whether national leaders use this stark assessment as a catalyst for bold systems transformation."
"This report makes clear that President Biden is squandering precious time every second he fails to take bold action on fossil fuels."
The UNFCCC report comes nearly eight years after countries finalized the Paris climate agreement, which aims to keep global temperature rise this century below 2°C, relative to preindustrial levels, with a more ambitious target of 1.5°C.
"The global stocktake was designed under the Paris agreement to assess our global response to the climate crisis and chart a better way forward," the UNFCCC explained Friday. "The global stocktake is held every five years and is intended to inform the next round of nationally determined contributions to be put forward by 2025."
Data collection began in 2021, ultimately resulting in more than 170,000 pages of written submissions and over 252 hours of meetings and discussions. The new synthesis report summarizes 17 key technical findings from the discussions.
"I urge governments to carefully study the findings of the report and ultimately understand what it means for them and the ambitious action they must take next," said U.N. Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell. "It's the same for businesses, communities, and other key stakeholders. While the catalytic role of the Paris agreement and the multilateral process will remain vital in the coming years, the global stocktake is a critical moment for greater ambition and accelerating action."
As University College London professor of climatology Mark Maslin explained, the report "makes it clear that the Paris agreement was a game-changer" but also countries' greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction pledges are not in line with the 1.5°C target.
"The U.N. estimates that... we need to reduce global GHG emissions by 43% by 2030 and further by 60% by 2035 compared to 2019 levels and reach net-zero [carbon dioxide] emissions by 2050 globally," Maslin summarized. "This is a huge ask given that greenhouse gas emissions were at their highest level ever in 2022."
"All the technology exists to undergo the net-zero transformation but the huge increases in renewables, [electric vehicles], and batteries [have] to be even more rapid to make the huge cuts suggested by the U.N.—estimates are we need everything to happen five times faster," he added.
The UNFCCC publication was released in preparation for the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP28)—scheduled for November and December in Dubai, United Arab Emirates—where the first global stocktake will conclude.
"This global stocktake report provides clear direction on how we can meet the expectations of the Paris agreement by taking decisive action in this critical decade," said COP28 President-Designate Sultan Al Jaber—whose selection for the summit post is controversial because he also heads the UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. "We must urgently disrupt business as usual and unite like never before to move from ambition to action and from rhetoric to real results."
The report also comes just ahead of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres' Climate Ambition Summit scheduled to begin on September 20 in New York City. In response, activists have planned the March to End Fossil Fuels on September 17.
Organizers of the NYC march are calling on U.S. President Joe Biden to stop federal approvals for new fossil fuel projects and repeal permits for "climate bombs" like the Willow project and the Mountain Valley Pipeline; phase out oil and gas drilling on public lands and waters; declare a climate emergency; and provide a just transition.
Advocacy groups supporting the march issued fresh demands for action on Friday in response to the UNFCCC publication.
"This report makes clear that President Biden is squandering precious time every second he fails to take bold action on fossil fuels," said the Center for Biological Diversity's Jean Su, who previously authored a document detailing how an emergency declaration would empower the administration to tackle the climate crisis. "Every day we're seeing and feeling the harms of fossil-fueled climate change from extreme heat to deadly wildfires and devastating floods."
"As leader of the world's largest oil and gas producer, Biden has more power than anyone to stop expanding the fossil fuels driving this deadly crisis," Su added. "Ahead of the U.N.'s Climate Ambition Summit, thousands of people will be in the streets of New York on September 17 for the March to End Fossil Fuels. This is the perfect opportunity for Biden to declare a climate emergency, use all his executive powers to phase out fossil fuels, and finally secure a legacy as a climate leader."
"We need the biggest players to use their power to avert climate chaos, and to flex their muscle to protect human life rather than protecting corporate polluters."
Greenpeace International policy coordinator Kaisa Kosonen on Friday called out governments across the globe, declaring that "our house is burning down and the people with the power to save us are still sipping coffee pretending it's not happening."
"No government can claim they didn't know how to fix the climate problem," she said. "They've been thrown a lifesaver again and again by scientists, and now we have this report. What the world is waiting for is action; leadership. We need the biggest players to use their power to avert climate chaos, and to flex their muscle to protect human life rather than protecting corporate polluters."
Looking toward COP28, Kosonen argued that "at this year's U.N. climate summit, governments must agree to end the use of oil, gas, and coal in a fast and fair way and make the polluters pay. Leaders can no longer smile and claim they support the Paris agreement and its 1.5°C warming limit, if they fail to give fossil fuels an end date and continue their expansion."
"The solutions are ready—renewables are now the cheapest power source—but we've got to push the fossil fuel industry out of the way," she stressed. "Fossil fuel corporations are holding us hostage, but their time's up."
The UNFCCC report and resulting calls for action follow a series of scientific findings throughout the week that also generated demands for a swift end to fossil fuels, including that Antarctica is warming more quickly than models project, this summer is the hottest on record, and last year greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea level, and ocean heat content all hit record highs.
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Abortion Rights Groups Bring 'People's Voice' to Florida Supreme Court, Demanding End to 15-Week Ban
"The people of Florida have said over and over that their right to control their own bodies and make their own healthcare decisions should remain a protected right in the Florida Constitution," said one advocate.
Sep 08, 2023
Abortion providers and reproductive rights advocates demanded that that Florida Supreme Court consider "the will and the well-being of the people" in the state on Friday as an attorney for the ACLU argued before the court that it should block the 15-week abortion ban signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last year.
The court heard oral arguments in Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, et al. v. State of Florida, et al., in which the reproductive rights organization has argued that the 15-week ban—as well as a six-week ban signed by DeSantis earlier this year, which would go into effect if the current law is upheld—violates the state constitution.
Whitney White, staff attorney for the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, represented the plaintiffs and argued before the court that Floridians have repeatedly affirmed that the right to obtain abortion care is protected by the the state constitution's privacy clause, which was added to the document via a referendum in 1980.
"In 2012," noted the ACLU, "voters overwhelmingly rejected Amendment 6, which would have taken those abortion protections away."
The group argued that the language in the constitution and those votes—along with a poll taken last year that showed two-thirds of Floridians support abortion rights—demonstrate that the Supreme Court must block House Bill 5, the 15-week ban.
In court, White said that for more than a year, H.B. 5 has been "violating fundamental rights and subjecting pregnant Floridians to serious and unnecessary risks to their health and indeed their lives."
"Now the state is asking this court not only to allow these harms to continue, but to in fact hold that there is no protection for abortion under the Florida Constitution whatsoever, and indeed hold that there is no protection for any decisional privacy rights at all," she said.
She told the justices that doctors across the state "are finding their hands tied by H.B. 5, and it is forcing them to wait for patients who are experiencing treatable medical pregnancy complications to deteriorate to the point of, for example, experiencing life-threatening conditions like sepsis before providers can intervene and feel confident that they can provide care."
"In another case," White said, "a provider was forced to deny care to a 14-year-old rape survivor—a child who had already been traumatized by the assault and now had to bare the additional trauma of continuing a pregnancy against her will."
"These injustices have been ongoing for a year, and if this court doesn't step in now there's an even more dangerous six-week ban waiting in the wings," she continued.
By sharing the stories of doctors and patients while defending a viewpoint held by the majority of the Florida population, White brought "the people's voice" to the state Supreme Court, said Stephanie Fraim, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida.
"Across the state, Floridians are outraged that the government continues to interfere in their personal medical decisions," said Fraim. "The people of Florida have said over and over that their right to control their own bodies and make their own healthcare decisions should remain a protected right in the Florida Constitution. Moreover, the Florida Supreme Court must respect the decades of precedent that make this law clearly unconstitutional. Floridians understand that this ban is a gross overreach into their lives, and they will not stand for it. We will continue to fight for our reproductive rights through all possible avenues."
DeSantis—who is also running for the GOP's presidential nomination in 2024—appointed five of the seven justices to the Florida Supreme Court; only one justice was appointed by a Democratic governor. During the oral arguments, Chief Justice Carlos Muniz referred to Roe v. Wade at one point as "an abomination."
Considering the makeup of the court, abortion rights advocates have expressed fear that the justices are likely to uphold H.B. 5 and allow a six-week ban to be enforced, which would put abortion almost entirely out of reach across the Southeast, remaining legal only before 12 weeks of pregnancy in North Carolina and six weeks, before many people know they're pregnant, in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Like advocates in states including Arizona and Nebraska, rights groups in Florida are working to place a referendum on abortion access on 2024 election ballots.
"Florida prides itself on individual freedom without government interference and abortion bans directly contradict who we are," said Kelly Flynn, president and CEO of A Woman's Choice of Jacksonville. "This 15-week abortion ban undermines the care we provide to patients who come to our clinic, often under complex and difficult circumstances. Many patients in Florida aren't able to receive an abortion by 15 weeks, let alone six weeks, due to financial obstacles, logistical hurdles, and navigating overlapping policies designed to make it harder to provide and access care."
"We remain committed to providing abortion care to Floridians," said Flynn, "and attaining abortion justice for all."
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With Funds Opposed by GOP, IRS to Target Ultrawealthy Tax Delinquents
"This news stands in stark contrast to the approach taken by House Republicans, who want to allow wealthy tax cheats to continue business as usual," said U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden.
Sep 08, 2023
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Friday won praise from congressional Democrats and progressive groups for announcing "a sweeping, historic effort to restore fairness in tax compliance by shifting more attention onto high-income earners, partnerships, large corporations, and promoters abusing the nation's tax laws."
The IRS effort is enabled by some of the $80 billion in funding for the agency included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which President Joe Biden signed into law last year. About a quarter of that money is set to be clawed back as part of his recent deal with congressional Republicans to temporarily suspend the nation's debt limit.
The agency intends to contact about 1,600 people with incomes above $1 million and over $250,000 in tax debt, building on an earlier push that collected $38 million from more than 175 high-income earners. It also aims to expand a pilot program targeting large partnerships, with help from artificial intelligence (AI). The IRS plans to launch examinations of 75 partnerships with an average of over $10 billion in assets—including hedge funds, law firms, and real estate investors—this month.
"This new compliance push makes good on the promise of the Inflation Reduction Act to ensure the IRS holds our wealthiest filers accountable to pay the full amount of what they owe," IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a statement. "The years of underfunding that predated the Inflation Reduction Act led to the lowest audit rate of wealthy filers in our history. I am committed to reversing this trend, making sure that new funding will mean more effective compliance efforts on the wealthy, while middle- and low-income filers will continue to see no change in historically low pre-IRA audit rates for years to come."
"The nation relies on the IRS to collect funding for every critical government mission—from keeping our skies safe, our food safe, and our homeland safe. It's critical that the agency addresses fundamental gaps in tax compliance that have grown during the last decade," he added. "There is a sea change taking place at the IRS in every aspect of our operations. Anchored by a deep respect for taxpayer rights, the IRS is deploying new resources towards cutting-edge technology to improve our visibility on where the wealthy shield their income and focus staff attention on the areas of greatest abuse."
The commissioner pledged that "we will increase our compliance efforts on those posing the greatest risk to our nation's tax system, whether it's the wealthy looking to dodge paying their fair share or promoters aggressively peddling abusive schemes. These steps are critical for the future of the nation's tax system."
Americans For Tax Fairness was among the organizations that celebrated the announcement on social media, declaring that "this is what happens when you give the IRS the funding it needs to catch rich tax cheats."
Groundwork Action highlighted that the agency's new moves are "all possible thanks to additional resources from the Inflation Reduction Act," while its sister organization Groundwork Collaborative said, "Just think of what we can accomplish with a fully funded IRS and a tax code that makes corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share."
However, such policies are highly unlikely to pass in the current Congress, with many Republicans who continue to not only oppose IRS funding but also push for tax bills designed to serve rich individuals and companies.
In addition to welcoming the "historic crackdown on rich tax cheats," Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) said, "Reminder: every single Republican in Congress voted against this crackdown on big business tax cheats."
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) similarly praised the IRS while calling out the congressional GOP.
"Today's announcement from the IRS makes clear that wealthy tax cheats are no longer allowed to play by a different set of rules than everyday Americans," he said in a statement. "I'm pleased to see the IRS using the enforcement funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to crack down on large, complex partnerships using groundbreaking technology—this is a big deal and represents a fresh approach to taking on sophisticated tax cheats."
"This action goes to the heart of Democrats' effort to ensure the wealthiest are paying their fair share so Medicare and Social Security can be protected and strengthened, education can be improved, and more investments can be made in priorities Americans are demanding," he added. "This news stands in stark contrast to the approach taken by House Republicans, who want to allow wealthy tax cheats to continue business as usual, paying little to no tax and asking middle-class taxpayers to foot the bill."
The New York Timesreported Friday that "the fight over IRS funding is continuing, as the House and the Senate try to agree on spending legislation to avert a possible government shutdown at the end of the month. Senate Democrats want to hold the base budget of the IRS steady while holding on to some of the Inflation Reduction Act money that lawmakers had agreed to rescind as part of the debt limit deal, while House Republicans are pushing for far deeper cuts that would eat into the tax agency's enforcement budget."
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