August, 02 2016, 10:30am EDT

As Comment Period Closes, Diverse Voices Call for Overhaul of Fast-Track Pipeline Approval Process
Nationwide Permit No. 12 process, up for renewal, gives blank check to Big Oil
Yesterday marked the close of the comment period for the public to weigh in on the renewal of Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP12). NWP12 serves as a blanket permit that can be used to fast-track the construction of massive oil pipelines by artificially treating them as thousands of small, individual projects that are exempt from the environmental review required by the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.
With the permit up for renewal, thousands of people from across the country have weighed in - including over 50,000 comments submitted yesterday from the Sierra Club alone - to express serious concerns about this process. By effectively shutting out public input and allowing dangerous crude oil and fracked gas pipelines to be rubberstamped behind closed doors, the continued use of NWP12 poses a serious threat to critical water resources, Indigenous rights, communities, and the climate.
"A pipeline is a pipeline -- period. It's not hundreds of separate pipelines," said Andy Pearson, Midwest Tar Sands Coordinator with MN350. "The Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois was just approved under NWP 12 over massive grassroots opposition because the Corps shirked its responsibility to look at the project as a whole. This makes a mockery of our regulatory process to the detriment of landowners, tribes, and local communities."
"Oil companies have been using this antiquated fast-track permit process that was not designed to properly address the issues of mega-projects such as the Dakota Access pipeline," said Dallas Goldtooth, of the Indigenous Environmental Network. "Meanwhile, tribal rights to consultation have been trampled and Big Oil is allowed to put our waters, air and land at immense risk. This cannot continue, its time for an overhaul."
"The federal government has a duty to tribal nations and to the safety of all U.S. citizens," said Tara Houska, National Campaigns Director with Honor the Earth. "With the fast-tracking of a pipeline that will contaminate the clean drinking water of tribal peoples and irrevocably damage the environment without proper environmental review, these duties are blatantly violated. We cannot drink oil, water is our finite life source. This decision is appalling and must be reversed."
Commenters representing environmental groups, landowner rights organizations, and Tribal communities are urging the Army Corps of Engineers to either revoke Nationwide Permit 12 or modify it to prevent the segmentation of pipelines and resume its prior practice of fully evaluating the environmental impacts of individual fossil fuel pipelines.
"Known threats to the public's safety should never be fast tracked, but that's exactly what renewing NWP12 would do," said Catherine Collentine, Senior Campaign Representative, Sierra Club Dirty Fuels Campaign. "It's time we put the well-being of our communities above polluter profits, and stop the rapid expansion of infrastructure for dirty and outdated fuels."
"Landowners property rights are once again thrown under the bus so a Big Oil corporation can put more pipelines in the ground that our country does not need," said Jane Kleeb, President of Bold Alliance. "You cannot keep building pipelines and think you can magically hit our commitments made in Paris to cut carbon pollution."
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.8 million members and supporters to defend everyone's right to a healthy world.
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Nationwide May Day Protests Target Trump's 'Billionaire Agenda'
"This May Day we are fighting back," said organizer May Day Strong. "We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes."
May 01, 2025
Hundreds of thousands of workers rallied from coast to coast Thursday to mark International Workers' Day with spirited demonstrations supporting labor rights and protesting President Donald Trump's "billionaire agenda" and attacks on the rule of law, unions, immigrants, Palestine defenders, transgender people, and others.
Rallies took place in hundreds of cities and towns across the United States in what the May Day Strong coalition, which led the day of action along with the 50501 movement and others, called "a demand for a country that invests in working families—not billionaire profits."
"Trump and his billionaire profiteers are trying to create a race to the bottom—on wages, on benefits, on dignity itself," the coalition said. "This May Day we are fighting back. We are demanding a country that puts our families over their fortunes—public schools over private profits, healthcare over hedge funds, prosperity over free market politics."
HAPPENING NOW: Hundreds of protesters march through the streets of Washington, D.C. en route to the White House for a May Day rally against Donald Trump (Video: Mariel Carbone)
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— Marco Foster (@marcofoster.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 10:06 AM
"Just one day after the 100th day of the Trump administration, families nationwide are already facing cuts to Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and education—while billionaires reap massive tax breaks and record profits," May Day Strong added.
In Philadelphia, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was among those who addressed a crowd of thousands, many of them union workers.
"Brothers and sisters, what we are celebrating today, May Day, is in a sense a sacred holiday, and all over our country workers are coming out and demanding justice, and all over the world, in dozens of countries, workers are standing up to oligarchy and demanding a world in which all people have a decent standard of living," said Sanders, whose Fighting Oligarchy tour with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)w is drawing massive crowds, including in "red" states.
Shafeek Anderson, a hotel worker and member of Unite Here Local 274 who attended the Philadelphia rally, toldWCAU that "we're tired of everything that's going on in everyday life. We're tired of our prices going up. We're tired of the unfair treatment."
"We're tired of the inequality in life and everything else," Anderson added. "So rallies like this will absolutely help show that we mean business and we absolutely will stand on business when we need to."
In Chicago, Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union—which recently won what it called a "transformative" new contract—said that "we believe in the power of common good bargaining and together, with SEIU 73 and other labor unions, we have been able to secure sanctuary protections for our students and their families."
"We resist bullies like Trump by creating coalition and leaning into the power of history and the power that Black people's freedom has paved for America in the first general strike during the Civil War," Davis Gates added. "My people believe in reconstruction, and we can do it together in solidarity and create a society that works for everyone."
Boise stands up for workers, for each other, for our humanity, for our democracy...Courage is contagious! May Day Strong!
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— Indivisible Boise Chapter One (@indivisibleboise.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 1:18 PM
The detainment and disappearance of students and workers without due process is an attack on every one of us in the streets today, and those of you at home. We won't be ignored. Los Angeles won't back down. #WeMakeAmericaWork #MayDay #InternationalWorkersDay
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— California Fast Food Workers Union (@cafastfoodunion.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 9:58 AM
The May Day Strong coalition is demanding:
- An end to the billionaire takeover and government corruption;
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- Protection and expansion of Medicaid, Social Security, and other essential programs;
- A halt to attacks on immigrants, Black, Indigenous, trans, and other targeted communities; and
- Strong union protections, fair wages, and dignity for all workers.
"This is a war on working people—and we will not stand down," said May Day Strong. "They're defunding our schools, privatizing public services, attacking unions, and targeting immigrant families with fear and violence. Working people built this nation, and we know how to take care of each other."
HAPPENING NOW: A HUGE crowd of protesters march through the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a May Day protest against Donald Trump
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— Marco Foster (@marcofoster.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 10:36 AM
HAPPENING NOW: Thousands of protesters are at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix for a May Day rally against Donald Trump (Video: Colton Krolak)
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— Marco Foster (@marcofoster.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 10:20 AM
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As an estimated tens of thousands mobilized for actions planned to honor May Day, also known as International Workers' Day, the United Auto Workers announced Thursday that over 900 UAW members who work for Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense company, have gone on strike.
Those striking include members of UAW Local 788 in Orlando and Local 766 in Denver, according to the union, which alleges that the company has committed "multiple unfair labor practices and refused to present a fair economic proposal that meets the membership's needs."
The two locals are covered by the same bargaining agreement, according toThe Denver Post, and workers in both locations walked off the job after voting down an offer from Lockheed Martin on Saturday. The company has "refused to present a fair economic proposal that meets the membership's needs," per the union.
The outlet Orlando Weeklyreported that the union says Lockheed Martin has offered "meaningful" pay raises for union members during contract discussions, but other issues have remained unresolved. They include holiday schedules, cost of living allowance, healthcare and prescription drug coverage, among others, according to UAW.
"It would be nice for the future generations and everybody else coming in not to have to wait 18 years to provide for their family like I have," Michael Mahoney, who has worked at Lockheed Martin for 21 years and and is a military veteran, told Orlando Weekly.
"They say they support the military, they want to use the veteran status, but when it comes to really showing us—a veteran, you know—the appreciation that we deserve, it don't feel like we get appreciated at all around here," said Mahoney.
The defense giant brought in $5.3 billion in net earnings in 2024, and has secured $1.7 billion in profits in the first quarter of 2025.
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Soon after sources leaked the news that Waltz had been dismissed, President Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social platform that he was nominating the national security adviser to be his ambassador.
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He organized a group chat on the commercial messaging app Signal in which officials discussed plans to bomb Yemen in March and inadvertently added the journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to the discussion.
It was later reported that Waltz and his staff had created at least 20 group chats using the app to discuss sensitive foreign policy issues, prompting calls for his resignation.
"Now Waltz can share sensitive U.S. military secrets on Signal chats with not just journalists—but all 193 countries of the world," said lawyer and commentator Tristan Snell after the new nomination was announced.
Journalist Jamie Dupree noted that when Waltz meets with senators for his confirmation hearings, he is likely to face "all sorts of questions about the Signalgate episode" from Democrats.
In his announcement, Trump said Waltz "has worked hard to put our nation's interests first" and expressed confidence that he will do the same as U.N. ambassador. He named Secretary of State Marco Rubio as Waltz's temporary replacement as national security adviser.
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