September, 30 2016, 02:15pm EDT
Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project in Canada Threatens Critically Endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales
Pipeline Company Has Long History of Spills, Accidents in United States
OTTAWA, Ontario
The Center for Biological Diversity today urged the Canadian government to reject Kinder Morgan's proposal to build a 613-mile pipeline so it can transport dirty Alberta tar sands oil to the United States and China. The pipeline would run from Edmonton, Alberta to Burnaby, British Columbia, where the oil would be loaded onto tankers and shipped through critical habitat for endangered Southern Resident killer whales, a species with fewer than 85 individual animals left.
Kinder Morgan has had at least 184 leaks and other pipeline incidents caused by corrosion, ruptures, equipment failure and other problems in the United States since 2006, federal data show. These incidents resulted in $75 million in property damage and more than 27,300 barrels of hazardous materials spilled.
"This company's disturbing history highlights the toxic threat of its pipeline expansion project," said Center attorney Kristen Monsell. "If this project's permitted, the pollution, noise and increased risk of dangerous oil spills would threaten the survival of some of the most amazing animals on Earth. Canada must reject this environmentally destructive project."
Southern Resident killer whales live primarily in waters off Washington and British Columbia and are protected as an endangered species in both the United States and Canada. Despite these protections the species hasn't recovered and is expected to decline to only 75 individuals within a generation. Existing human activities in and near coastal waters threaten these animals by reducing salmon numbers (their primary food), generating toxic pollution and increasing ocean noise, which disrupts the orcas' ability to communicate and locate prey.
The project would nearly triple the capacity of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline to 890,000 barrels per day and would increase the amount of tanker traffic in the Salish Sea -- a core foraging area for these endangered orcas -- seven-fold, from around 60 tankers per year to more than 400.
Experts have said that an oil spill from the project could collapse salmon stocks and lead to the extinction of Southern Resident killer whales, similar to what is happening to a pod of killer whales near Prince William Sound due to lingering effects of the Exxon Valdez disaster. That pod now consists of only seven animals and is expected to die off soon.
"Southern Resident killer whales are already teetering on the brink of extinction -- the last thing they need is hundreds of loud oil tankers carrying millions of gallons of dirty oil through their habitat," said Monsell. "We can't let what the Exxon Valdez spill did to killer whales off Alaska happen to Southern Residents too."
In order to authorize the project, the Canadian government must determine that the project is in the public interest. Canada's National Energy Board issued a report finding the project met that standard in May, but the Governor in Council has yet to make a final decision. A decision is expected in December.
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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Medicare for All, Says Sanders, Would Show American People 'Government Is Listening to Them'
"The goal of the current administration and their billionaire buddies is to pile on endless cuts," said one nurse and union leader. "Even on our hardest days, we won't stop fighting for Medicare for All."
Apr 29, 2025
On Tuesday, Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Debbie Dingell of Michigan reintroduced the Medicare for All Act, re-upping the legislative quest to enact a single-payer healthcare system even as the bill faces little chance of advancing in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives or Senate.
Hundreds of nurses, healthcare providers, and workers from across the country joined the lawmakers for a press conference focused on the bill's reintroduction in front of the Capitol on Tuesday.
"We have the radical idea of putting healthcare dollars into healthcare, not into profiteering or bureaucracy," said Sanders during the press conference. "A simple healthcare system, which is what we are talking about, substantially reduces administrative costs, but it would also make life a lot easier, not just for patients, but for nurses" and other healthcare providers, he continued.
"So let us stand together," Sanders told the crowd. "Let us do what the American people want and let us transform this country. And when we pass Medicare for All, it's not only about improving healthcare for all our people—it's doing something else. It's telling the American people that, finally, the American government is listening to them."
Under Medicare for All, the government would pay for all healthcare services, including dental, vision, prescription drugs, and other care.
"It is a travesty when 85 million people are uninsured or underinsured and millions more are drowning in medical debt in the richest nation on Earth," said Jayapal in a statement on Tuesday.
In 2020, a study in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet found that a single-payer program like Medicare for All would save Americans more than $450 billion and would likely prevent 68,000 deaths every year. That same year, the Congressional Budget Office found that a single-payer system that resembles Medicare for All would yield some $650 billion in savings in 2030.
Members of National Nurses United (NNU), the nation's largest union of registered nurses, were also at the press conference on Tuesday.
In a statement, the group highlighted that the bill comes at a critical time, given GOP-led threats to programs like Medicaid.
"The goal of the current administration and their billionaire buddies is to pile on endless cuts and attacks so that we become too demoralized and overwhelmed to move forward," said Bonnie Castillo, registered nurse and executive director of NNU. "Even on our hardest days, we won't stop fighting for Medicare for All."
Per Sanders' office, the legislation has 104 co-sponsors in the House and 16 in the Senate, which is an increase from the previous Congress.
A poll from Gallup released in 2023 found that 7 in 10 Democrats support a government-run healthcare system. The poll also found that across the political spectrum, 57% of respondents believe the government should ensure all people have healthcare coverage.
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Advocates Warn GOP Just Unveiled 'Most Dangerous Higher Ed Bill in US History'
"This is the boldest attempt we've seen in recent history to segregate higher education along racial and class lines," said the Debt Collective.
Apr 29, 2025
At a markup session held by a U.S. House committee on the Republican Party's recently unveiled higher education reform bill Tuesday, one Democratic lawmaker had a succinct description for the legislation.
"This bill is a dream-killer," said Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) of the so-called Student Success and Taxpayer Savings Plan, which was introduced by Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) as part of an effort to find $330 billion in education programs to offset President Donald Trump's tax plan.
Tasked with helping to make $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans possible, Walberg on Monday proposed changes to the Pell Grant program, which has provided financial aid to more than 80 million low-income students since it began in 1972. The bill would allocate more funding to the program but would also reduce the number of students who are eligible for the grants, changing the definition of a "full-time" student to one enrolled in at least 30 semester hours each academic year—up from 12 hours. Students would be cut off from the financial assistance entirely if they are enrolled less than six hours per semester.
David Baime, senior vice president for government relations for the American Association of Community Colleges, suggested the legislation doesn't account for the realities faced by many students who benefit from Pell Grants.
"These students are almost always working a substantial number of hours each week and often have family responsibilities. Pell Grants help them meet the cost of tuition and required fees," Baime toldInside Higher Ed. "We commend the committee for identifying substantial additional resources to help finance Pell, but it should not come at the cost of undermining the ability of low-income working students to enroll at a community college."
The draft bill would also end subsidized loans, which don't accrue interest when a student is still in college and gives borrowers a six-month grace period after graduation, starting in July 2026. More than 30 million borrowers currently have subsidized loans.
The proposal would also reduce the number of student loan repayment options from those offered by the Biden administration to just two, with borrowers given the option for a fixed monthly amount paid over a certain period of time or an income-based plan.
At the markup session on Tuesday, Bonamici pointed to her own experience of paying for college and law school "through a combination of grants and loans and work study and food stamps," and noted that her Republican colleagues on the committee also "graduated from college."
"And more than half of them have gone on to earn advanced degrees," said the congresswoman. "And yet those same individuals who benefited so much from accessing higher education are supporting a bill that will prevent others from doing so."
“In a time when higher ed is being attacked, this bill is another assault,” @RepBonamici calls out committee leaders for wanting to gut financial aid.
“With this bill, they will be taking that opportunity [of higher ed] away from others. This bill is a dream killer.” pic.twitter.com/UjTYvnOEKv
— Student Borrower Protection Center (@theSBPC) April 29, 2025
Democrats on the committee also spoke out against provisions that would cap loans a student can take out for graduate programs at $100,000; the Grad PLUS program has allowed students to borrow up to the cost of attendance.
The Parent PLUS program, which has been found to provide crucial help to Black families accessing higher education, would also be restricted.
"Black students, brown students, first-generation college students, first-generation Americans, will not have access to college," said Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.).
“We cannot take away access to loans, and not replace it with anything else, not make the system better. We know the outcome here—Black, brown, and poor students will not figure it out. Instead, only elite students from the 1% will continue to access education.”@RepSummerLee🙇 pic.twitter.com/oGbRH154Ed
— Student Borrower Protection Center (@theSBPC) April 29, 2025
As the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) warned last week, eliminating the Grad PLUS program without also lowering the cost of graduate programs would "subject millions of future borrowers to an unregulated and predatory private student loan market, while doing little to reduce overall student debt and the need to borrow."
Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director for SBPC, told The Hill that the draft bill is "an attack on students and working families with student loan debt."
"We've seen an array of really problematic proposals that are on the table for congressional Republicans," Canchola Bañez said. "Many of these would cause massive spikes for families with monthly student loan payments."
With the proposal, which Republicans hope to pass through reconciliation with a simple majority, the party would be "restructuring higher education for the worse," said the Debt Collective.
"It's the most dangerous higher ed bill in U.S. history," said the student loan borrowers union. "It strips the Department of Education of virtually every authority to cancel student debt. Eliminates every repayment program. Abolishes subsidized loans."
"This is the boldest attempt we've seen in recent history to segregate higher education along racial and class lines," the group added. "We have to push back."
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In First 100 Days, Trump Waged 'Relentless Assault on Working People'
"We are either patriots fighting the regime, or we are complicit in its tyranny," wrote former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich. "There is no middle ground."
Apr 29, 2025
Tuesday is the 100th day of U.S. President Donald Trump's second term, which so far has featured plummeting public opinion poll numbers and mobilizations against his billionaire inner circle's mounting attacks on working people.
"Since Franklin D. Roosevelt's earthshaking first 100 days in office, no president has matched the sheer drama and disruption of that 15-week sprint in 1933, which rewrote the relationship between Americans and their government. At least until now," Naftali Bendavid wrote Monday for The Washington Post.
"Roosevelt's onslaught, in the depths of the Great Depression, was aimed at expanding the federal government's presence in Americans' lives. Trump's crusade is aimed largely at dismantling it," Bendavid added, noting that while FDR's agenda was enacted by Congress, the current president "has governed largely by unilateral executive action."
Ahead of nationwide protests planned for later this week, many Trump critics marked the 100-day milestone by chronicling how the president's policies are making life harder for the working class, from cutting federal employees and funding to pursuing mass deportations and economically devastating tariffs.
"The cruelty is unnerving, the disregard for the Constitution and rule of law is reckless, and the day-to-day pain can never be justified."
"It is a fallacy to argue that we must choose between fighting for a fair economy and protecting our democracy," the watchdog Accountable.US said in a Monday memo. "Trump's first 100 days, which will be marked this week, clearly show that the two are interconnected, and he's failed Americans on both."
"What we have seen over the past 100 days is a president who has flouted the law, gutted checks and balances, and consolidated power for himself," the memo continues. "He has also, with the help of Elon Musk and allies in Congress, done catastrophic damage to our economy, injecting chaos and uncertainty for small businesses and investors, undermining workers' rights, tanking consumer confidence, and increasing the likelihood of a recession."
The Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index dropped 7.9 points this month to 86—meaning "consumer confidence declined for a fifth consecutive month in April, falling to levels not seen since the onset of the Covid pandemic," according to Stephanie Guichard, a senior economist at the think tank.
Calling those numbers "sobering" and a "signal that we are plunging headfirst into a recession," Groundwork Collaborative executive director Lindsay Owens said that "if this is the level of pain the president is willing to inflict on Americans in just a few short months, it's no wonder that consumers and businesses are bracing themselves for a long, dark road ahead."
"This is a man-made crisis," Owens declared. "In his first 100 days, Trump did all he could to engineer a recession."
Donald Trump promised to end inflation and lower costs on his first day in office. Instead, Americans are paying a higher price on groceries, cars, utilities, and housing — with the looming fear of a recession. He's crashing our economy and leaving you with the bill.
— Governor JB Pritzker (@govpritzker.illinois.gov) April 29, 2025 at 2:31 PM
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) last week compiled a list of "100 ways Trump has hurt workers in his first 100 days," which includes terminating grants to fight forced and child labor, nominating Crystal Casey to be general counsel at the National Labor Relations Board, and leaving the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service with what one employee recently toldCommon Dreams is "a very skeletal crew."
In addition to detailing Trump administration actions to degrade wages and working conditions, the think tank's report lays out Trump's attacks on anti-discrimination protections, immigrant workers, public education, and more.
"During the campaign, Trump promised to put working people first, lower rising costs on groceries and gas, and preserve our earned benefits and healthcare," American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) president Lee Saunders noted Monday. "Instead, the first 100 days of this billionaire-run administration have been fueled by lies, broken promises, and a relentless assault on working people and unions."
"He has handed over the reins of government to billionaires—appointing the wealthiest Cabinet in American history, kicking off a trade war that is raising prices on everyday goods, attacking Social Security and Medicaid, cutting wages for workers, and stripping collective bargaining rights from more than 1 million federal employees," the union leader said. "The White House claimed it had nothing to do with Project 2025, yet it has already implemented over one-third of the anti-worker agenda, often sidestepping Congress and the courts to do so."
Saunders stressed that "the fallout has been immediate. Retirees are left wondering how to navigate Social Security as staff are laid off, offices are closed, and services are cut. People are watching their retirement savings shrink. Lifesaving health and safety regulations have been put on hold. Students with disabilities are losing vital support from the Department of Education. The Department of Health and Human Services is clawing back funding from states, cities, and towns to fight infectious diseases as measles is on the rise, and it's just the beginning."
AFSCME and the American Federation of Teachers are challenging some of Trump's moves in court. AFT president Randi Weingarten on Tuesday condemned a similar list of Trump actions, including cuts to "research grants to colleges and universities that fund cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's research," and said that "it's no wonder his public approval is tanking."
"The cruelty is unnerving, the disregard for the Constitution and rule of law is reckless, and the day-to-day pain can never be justified," Weingarten added. "That's why our members are fighting back."
Some of the actions highlighted by union leaders are also included in First Focus on Children's Monday timeline for what the advocacy group called the Trump administration's "systematic war on the nation's children."
"I'm not sure we've ever seen an administration so laser-focused on targeting the nation's children for harm," said the group's president, Bruce Lesley. He called out Trump, his appointees, and the GOP-controlled Congress for planning to cut children's healthcare by $880 billion, shutter the Education Department, and "steal the lunch money of the nation's poorest kids."
"Babies have been singled out for special punishment with the proposed revocation of birthright citizenship and deportation of U.S. citizen children. This administration is also promoting tax policies that penalize families for having newborns," Lesley continued, also pointing to the "decimation" of the United States Agency for International Development. "The president has left children overseas to die of AIDS, malaria, and starvation by the millions."
“'100 Days of Destruction': Top Historian on Trump's Presidency So Far” Writing for Zeteo, Princeton's @zelizer.bsky.social explains how past US presidents used their first 100 days to build, while Trump has used his to dismantle, intimidate, and destroy. Read/share/subscribe:
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— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan.bsky.social) April 29, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Trying to end birthright citizenship is one of several ways Trump is attacking immigrants. The advocacy group America's Voice this week published a fact sheet titled, High Costs, No Benefits: 100 Days Of Trump's Immigration Agenda.
"Let this sink in: Our government is deporting American kids, including kids with cancer, and is now trying to defend and excuse their choices on national television," said the organization's executive director, Vanessa Cárdenas. "Their actions embody the cruelty, chaotic, and harmful nature of their agenda the past 100 days, and what they want from the next 100 weeks and beyond."
"As Americans see the cruelty and overreach in action," Cárdenas noted, "a growing majority is expressing disapproval, connecting it to broader concerns regarding the rule of law, the tanking economy, cuts to Americans' healthcare, and overall chaos and extremism."
The Trump administration's anti-immigrant agenda is featured in several of the items on a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) list of actions "that pose significant risks to the human rights of people living in the United States and around the world."
Tanya Greene, U.S. program director at HRW, said that the administration has already "inflicted enormous damage to human rights" and "we are deeply concerned that these attacks on fundamental freedoms will continue unabated."
Item 51 on HRW's list warns that "people in the United States risk seeing their democratic power weakened by a politically motivated effort to skew long-standing U.S. Census Bureau policies and methods aimed at ensuring accurate population counts that determine how presidents, members of Congress, and others are elected and how federal funding is allocated to states and localities."
All Voting Is Local executive director Hannah Fried said in a Tuesday statement that "these first 100 days have been a five-alarm fire for the freedom to vote," citing Trump's executive order on elections, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, "and copycat bills in Ohio and Michigan that would require voters to show a passport or birth certificate to vote."
"The voting rights assaults during this time specifically hurt Black, Brown, Native American, and other historically marginalized communities," she emphasized. "They also set a tone for further efforts to erode voting rights and consolidate power at all levels of government in the lead-up to next year's midterm elections."
A growing number of public figures and watchdogs are sounding the alarm about the consolidation of power under Trump. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been crisscrossing the country for his Fighting Oligarchy Tour, and the advocacy group Public Citizen this week put out a list of highlights from the president's first "100 days of oligarchy and conflicts of interest."
Public Citizen's resource outlines how Trump "is handing people with clear corporate conflicts of interest—like stakes in Big Oil companies, long corporate lobbying careers, and seats on major company boards—the power to regulate and oversee corporations," dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and ridding the government of inspectors general, among other actions that enrich him and his allies at the expense of the public.
"People aren't fooled. They see what's going on. It's why millions took the streets on April 5th to protest Trump and Musk's attacks on working families."
The organization Issue One also has a new report—Unchecked Exec—about how "Trump's first 100 days have been focused on consolidating power and sidestepping anti-corruption safeguards."
"The Founders were deeply concerned about concentrating too much power in the presidency," said Issue One CEO Nick Penniman. "The Founders fought a revolution to get rid of concentrated executive authority, and they placed 'We, the People'—and Congress—at the center of the Constitution."
"A hundred days into this administration, it's clear the White House is intent on pushing the limits of its power to the point where it risks violating the Constitution and eroding the freedoms of every American," Penniman added. "This is a time for total vigilance, before the America we were living in 101 days ago begins to disappear."
The public is already fighting back in the form of protest. Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, said Tuesday that "calling Trump's first 100 days a dumpster fire would be an insult to dumpster fires."
"In less than four months, Trump has destroyed jobs, brought the economy to the brink of ruin, and done absolutely nothing to lower costs," he continued. "People aren't fooled. They see what's going on. It's why millions took the streets on April 5th to protest Trump and Musk's attacks on working families. It's why more and more people are joining community organizations or stepping up to run for office."
"Trump and his billionaire friends want us to fight against each other, so they can take an even larger share of the pie," he added. "But we're not playing their game. Instead, we're going to bring working people together, from every background and geography, to stop Trump and his MAGA cronies in their tracks."
A national day of action is planned for Thursday, recognized globally as May Day. There are more than 1,100 rallies scheduled—including one at Philadelphia City Hall, where Sanders is set to join the city's AFL-CIO chapter under the banner, "For the Workers, Not the Billionaires."
While Sanders and those who have joined him on tour, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), have been praised for their response to the second Trump administration, constituents across the United States are calling on many members of Congress to do more.
Although Republicans control both chambers of Congress, recent polling shows rising support for impeaching Trump a historic third time, and Congressman Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) on Monday filed seven articles of impeachment against the president. Thursday will feature some actions focused on pressuring lawmakers to pursue impeachment.
Given Congress' current makeup, Christina Harvey, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America, is specifically calling on Republican lawmakers who "aided and abetted" Trump to instead fight back against his "relentless assault on our democracy, our freedoms, and the basic services hardworking Americans depend on to survive."
"What more will it take for Republicans in Congress to find the courage to stand up for their constituents?" she asked Tuesday. "The president is not a king, and Congress is meant to be a co-equal branch of government. We can't afford to wait another 100 days for them to finally remember that."
Over the first 100 days, we @sddfund.bsky.social have taken 100 actions challenging the Trump admin’s lawlessness—incl. repping conservatives opposing his foreign abductions We’ll keep fighting in the courts of law & public opinion. I discussed @msnbc.com
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— Norm Eisen (@normeisen.bsky.social) April 29, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Opponents of the president's agenda are also fighting in the courts. In a 100-day roundup, the ACLU said that "Trump has tested every limit, abused every power, and exploited every loophole to silence dissent, disenfranchise marginalized communities, and erode our rule of law."
"These are deliberate tactics designed to enforce compliance through fear, force, and censorship. But we aren't backing down. If the Trump administration wants to go after people's rights and freedoms, they'll have to go through us first. And we were ready for this fight," declared the group, which so far has filed 107 legal actions.
In a Monday blog post, former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich argued that everyone must fight to save a nation that "is tottering on the edge of dictatorship."
"We are no longer Democrats or Republicans. We are either patriots fighting the regime, or we are complicit in its tyranny. There is no middle ground," Reich wrote. "Soon, I fear, the regime will openly defy the Supreme Court."
"Americans must be mobilized into such a huge wave of anger and disgust that members of the House are compelled to impeach Trump (for the third time) and enough senators are moved to finally convict him," he added. "Then this shameful chapter of American history will end."
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