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For Immediate Release
September, 01 2016, 12:00pm EDT
Contact:
Erin Jensen,Email:,EJensen@foe.org
Ahead of G20, Enviros Warn Obama on TTIP, Fossil Fuel Subsidies
WASHINGTON
Ahead of the G20 summit September 4 and 5 in Hangzhou, China, more than a dozen environmental organizations sent a letter to President Obama highlighting the dangers the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership -- TTIP -- poses to his climate legacy.
Under President Obama's leadership in 2009, the G20 first committed to a phaseout of "inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption." This commitment could be undermined if TTIP, a free trade deal under negotiation between the U.S. and the European Union, is finalized with the proposed language from the European Union. Based on European proposals, TTIP would allow G20 countries to maintain fossil fuel subsidies for undefined "economic" and "security of supply" reasons, a potential loophole that could leave intact billions in polluter handouts. According to one estimate, total subsidies to fossil fuel producers throughout G20 countries runs to an annual $444 billion.
The letter urges President Obama to protect the G20 commitment from polluter-friendly trade deals like TTIP and highlights other worrying provisions from the draft, including measures that would undermine energy efficiency standards and expedite the export of liquefied natural gas.
"Eliminating fossil fuel subsidies would prevent billions from pouring into the pockets of Big Coal, Oil, and Gas each year, and corporate trade deals can't stand in the way," said Ilana Solomon, director of the Responsible Trade Program at the Sierra Club. "Instead, corporate trade deals like TTIP must be replaced with a new model of trade that supports, not hinders, climate progress."
"When it comes to climate action, President Obama's biggest blind spot is still corporate trade," said Ben Schreiber, director of the Climate Program at Friends of the Earth. "Trade deals like TTIP are corporate power grabs that have to be stopped."
"If governments are serious about the Paris climate change agreement, they have to stop giving subsidies to fossil fuel companies" said Alex Doukas, senior campaigner at Oil Change International. "We can't allow trade deals like TTIP to let governments weasel out of their commitment to end dirty fossil fuel subsidies."
"Current trade deals give big oil and gas corporations a second and third bite of the apple to avoid democratic accountability. The only way forward is to stop the massive giveaways to the Exxons of the world and the first step is to stop the TPP," said Bill Snape, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity.
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
(202) 783-7400LATEST NEWS
Rejecting Trump Admin's Account, Iran Says US Killed Five Civilians in Strait of Hormuz
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Iranian officials on Tuesday rejected the Trump administration's account of events in the Strait of Hormuz over the preceding 24 hours, saying that the US military attacked two cargo boats and killed at least five civilians amid President Donald Trump's ploy to force open the critical waterway.
Iran's state-affiliated media carried comments from an unnamed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander who said that American forces "attacked two small boats carrying people on their way from Khasab on the coast of Oman to the coast of Iran on Monday," killing five people on board, and that no IRGC vessels were hit. US forces, said the commander, "must be held accountable for their crime."
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Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a top Iranian negotiator and speaker of the country's parliament, said in a statement posted online early Tuesday that "the new equation of the Strait of Hormuz is in the process of being solidified."
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The complaint then lays out DeSantis' monthslong push to redraw Florida's districts to appease the increasingly authoritarian president, in violation of the state constitution. It stresses that recent "changes to Florida's congressional plan come on the heels of a 2022 redistricting plan that already substantially advantaged Republicans."
The state's new map "is, by traditional measures of partisan gerrymandering, one of the most extreme gerrymanders in American history," the document declares. It was "made by professionals with sophisticated tools and a clear partisan goal: to pack and crack Democratic voters with surgical precision and deprive Florida voters of a fair map guaranteed to them by the Florida Constitution."
The Democratic and unregistered Florida voters behind the case, who live in various districts, asked the court to block the latest rigged map from being used in this year's election and strike it down completely.
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The plaintiffs are represented by the Orlando-based firm King, Blackwell, Zehnder, & Wermuth as well as Elias Law Group, which was founded by Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias.
Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, and US House Democratic Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) also spoke out against the new state map on Monday.
"The lame-duck governor of Florida is auditioning for Donald Trump's undying love after his presidential aspirations were crushed in 2024," Jeffries said in a statement. "Democrats have brutally thwarted the MAGA midterm power grab, and we will continue to push back aggressively. Today, less than a week after corrupt Republican legislators approved an unconstitutional partisan map leaked to a right-wing news outlet, Ron DeSanctimonious signed it into law."
"By his own lawyer's admission, these boundaries were drawn with partisan intent, a shameless disregard for Florida voters who overwhelmingly passed the Fair Districts Amendment to bar political favoritism and incumbent protection in 2010," Jeffries emphasized. "Ron DeSantis knows this gerrymander is a direct violation of Florida law."
As Politico reported Monday
A top aide for the GOP governor acknowledged last week that he relied on political data as part of his map drawing effort—a potential violation of "Fair Districts" standards.
Attorneys for DeSantis contended that these anti-gerrymandering standards no longer needed to be followed because the state Supreme Court last year ruled that the minority voter protections that were also part of the same amendment did not need to be strictly followed. They said the amendment was a "package" that could not be broken apart.
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The US Department of Homeland Security is officially closing its watchdog for immigrant detention abuse, even as reports of excessive force, deadly neglect, and other maltreatment by agency personnel soar under the Trump administration.
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OIDO emerged amid widespread abuse of detained migrants during the first Trump administration, including deaths in custody, family separation, overcrowding, and other mistreatment.
Since returning to office for a second term, Trump has overseen the dismantling of the agency, arguing that it hinders immigration enforcement. The administration's effort to dilute OIDO's power have triggered legal action arguing that, since it was created by Congress, the agency cannot be abolished without congressional consent.
DHS detainees—especially those ICE lockups—report abuses including inadequate or delayed medical care; physical attacks and excessive force; sexual abuse and harassment; solitary confinement misuse; overcrowded and unsanitary conditions; intimidation and retaliation following complaints; abuse of pregnant women and children; denial of access to lawyers; denial of family contact; and denial of food, water, hygiene, or medication.
Last year was the deadliest in ICE detention in about two decades, with more than 30 deaths reported in custody. So far this year, at least 18 more detainees had reportedly died in ICE custody.
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— Adam Isacson (@adamisacson.com) May 4, 2026 at 3:19 PM
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