April, 06 2021, 12:00am EDT
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Climate and Environmental Justice Groups Call on EPA to Hold Industrial Dairy and Hog Operations Accountable for Pollution
Petition includes invitation to reject false solutions like biogas.
WASHINGTON
Today, Food & Water Watch joined environmental, environmental justice, and rural community groups across the country to file a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency, calling on the agency to regulate industrial dairy and hog operations and hold them accountable for their harmful contributions to air and climate pollution.
The petition also calls on the EPA to reject the false solution of factory farm gas, branded as "biogas" by industrial agribusiness and Big Oil & Gas. Factory farm gas is a form of dirty energy and a false climate solution that will continue to negatively impact Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and white rural communities and further harm our land, air, and water.
Oregon has long suffered from loose regulations and a legislature bound to industrial agricultural interests by significant campaign contributions. A bill that would have put a pause on new permits for mega-dairies in Oregon died last week after an industry-weighted hearing in the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment.
This petition calls for immediate action from the EPA to exercise its authority and fulfill its obligation to protect public health, rural communities, and our land, air, and water by listing and regulating industrial dairy and hog operations -- defined as facilities that confine at least 500 cows or 1,000 hogs without access to pasture while liquefying manure -- under section 111 of the Clean Air Act. As major sources of the super pollutant methane, these facilities endanger public health and welfare and now account for 33 percent of agricultural methane emissions, 13 percent of total U.S. methane emissions, and 1.3 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
"Industrial dairies pollute Oregon's natural resources but their air pollution remains unregulated," said Food & Water Watch Legal Director Tarah Heinzen. "The Biden EPA has an obligation to curb the emissions of these mega-polluters and stop the false narrative of biogas as a renewable energy source. Mega-dairies like Threemile Canyon have falsely claimed manure digesters are sustainable farm practices, but the reality is much darker. Digesters capture only a fraction of the methane produced by factory farms and bind us to a system that supports fossil fuels."
"We've seen firsthand in Oregon that unchecked expansion and unregulated operation of industrial factory farms leads to disaster," said Food & Water Watch Oregon Organizer Emma Newton. "Mega-dairy interests have for the most part operated with the tacit approval of the Oregon legislature after heavy campaign contributions. But frontline communities pay the price when their water is contaminated or their air is polluted with methane and ammonia. The EPA can hold these companies accountable right now."
This petition demands that the EPA step up and address the role that industrial agriculture plays as a major driver in climate change.The EPA must uphold the President's commitment to a climate agenda that "follows the science" rather than conjecture and corporate motivation, and embraces real climate change solutions, including sustainable agricultural practices, as well as wind and solar energy in order to restore rural communities, help stabilize our climate, and advance environmental justice.
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
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Gaza Newborn Saved From Womb of Mother Killed in Israeli Airstrike
Malek Yassin was born into the hell that is Gaza during the 293 days of relentless Israeli bombings and blockade that have claimed the lives of more than Palestinian 16,000 children.
Jul 25, 2024
The recent rescue of a newborn from the womb of his mother after she was killed by an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza refugee camp has renewed focus on the horrors endured by Palestinian children and their families during Israel's nine-and-a-half-month onslaught.
Ola Al-Kurd was nine months pregnant and "wanted to hold her child and fill our home with his presence," Adnan Al-Kurd, the slain woman's father, toldReuters.
But last Friday, an Israeli strike on their family home in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza killed the woman and several of her relatives. Surgeons at Al-Awda Hospital were able to safely deliver her baby, Malek Yassin, who was transferred to Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah and placed in an incubator.
"This baby's life was saved and he is now alive and well," said Al-Aqsa physician Dr. Khalil Al-Dakran. However, the infant's survival is far from guaranteed.
"We are in fact facing very great difficulties in the nursery department," Al-Dakran explained, pointing to an acute lack of medication, fuel to run generators, and other critical supplies.
"What is the fault of this child to start his life under difficult and very bad circumstances, deprived of the most basic necessities of life?" he asked.
Earlier this year, another Gaza newborn rescued from her slain mother's womb at just 30 weeks' gestation died days later at Emirati Maternity Hospital in Rafah.
Israel's 293-day siege, bombardment, and invasion of Gaza—which has killed, wounded, or left missing at least 140,000 Palestinians—has been hell on children and their mothers. The embattled enclave's healthcare infrastructure has been largely obliterated, forcing many mothers to give birth in precarious places, including in tents, streets, and even public bathrooms.
Basic survival items like diapers and formula have also been in extremely short supply in Gaza, which the United Nations Children's Fund has called "the world's most dangerous place to be a child."
As The British Medical Journalreported earlier this year, mothers in Gaza are "burying their newborns every day" as they have nothing to feed them due to what United Nations experts, human rights groups, and parties to the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have called Israel's use of starvation as a weapon of war.
Oxfam said early in the war that children in Gaza were dying from preventable causes including diarrhea, hypothermia, dehydration, and infections.
In January, the ICJ ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts including blocking food and other aid from entering Gaza. Human rights groups accused Israel of ignoring the order.
The World Court then issued a new order in March, reiterating its directive to prevent genocide, citing "worsening conditions" in Gaza, including "the spread of famine and starvation."
Dozens of Palestinians—almost all of them children—have died from malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of access to healthcare in Gaza over recent months.
Of the more than 39,000 Gazans who have been killed by Israel's bombs, bullets, and blockade, at least 16,000 are children, according to Palestinian and international agencies.
Israeli forces have allegedly deliberately targeted and executed children and their mothers. Israeli Air Force warplanes are dropping shrapnel-packed fragmentation bombs that doctors say are eviscerating children's bodies and causing a "constant flow of amputations."
The humanitarian group Save the Children said late last month that nearly 21,000 Palestinian children are missing in Gaza, with 17,000 orphaned and around 4,000 others believed to be dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed buildings. An unknown number of children are also believed to be buried in mass graves.
Israeli bombardments have wiped out entire Palestinian families.
Israel's onslaught is also causing what one Gaza mother called the "complete psychological destruction" of child survivors.
Last month, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres added Israel to the so-called "List of Shame" of countries and groups that kill and injure children.
On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and 13 Democratic colleagues sent a letter to the Israeli and Egyptian ambassadors to the United States urging them to expedite the evacuation of critically ill and injured Palestinian children from Gaza.
"While people disagree about the war in Gaza, everyone should agree that no government should prevent injured children access to potentially lifesaving medical care," the senators wrote. "Rather, governments should be doing everything possible to assist in this situation."
"We must all treat the welfare of children in Gaza as an urgent humanitarian priority and work together to prevent further suffering," the lawmakers added.
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House Dem Launches Push to Overturn Supreme Court Immunity Ruling
"It is incumbent upon Congress to fix this problem, and with his proposed constitutional amendment, Rep. Joseph Morelle is taking the first step," said the head of one group backing the effort.
Jul 25, 2024
The top Democrat of the Committee on House Administration on Wednesday proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would reverse the Supreme Court's recent decision to grant presidents "absolute immunity" from criminal prosecution for "official acts."
Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court's right-wing members ruled in favor of former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee for the November election, triggering a wave of warnings, including from liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote in her early July dissent that "the president is now a king above the law."
Congressman Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) is leading the fight for an amendment to reverse that ruling. He said in a statement that the high court "undermined not just the foundation of our constitutional government, but the foundation of our democracy."
"At its core, our nation relies on the principle that no American stands above another in the eyes of the law," he continued. "I introduced this constitutional amendment to correct a grave error of this Supreme Court and protect our democracy by ensuring no president is ever above the law. The American people expect their leaders to be held to the same standards we hold for any member of our community. Presidents are not monarchy, they are not tyrants, and shall not be immune."
Morelle proposed an amendment that would make clear "there is no immunity from criminal prosecution for an act on the grounds that such act was within the constitutional authority or official duties of an individual," and presidents may not pardon themselves.
"The Roberts Court, in a fit of neomonarchical enthusiasm for Donald Trump, has tried to lay out the red carpet for a lawless autocratic president."
The effort is backed by over 40 other House Democrats, including Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, a constitutional law scholar.
"We must do everything in our power to reverse the Supreme Court's outrageous betrayal of more than two centuries of constitutional law in America," said Raskin. "Nothing has been more sacred to American constitutional jurisprudence than the idea that no one is above the law, but the Roberts Court, in a fit of neomonarchical enthusiasm for Donald Trump, has tried to lay out the red carpet for a lawless autocratic president."
"We should do everything we can in a statutory way to repair the damage," he argued, "but ultimately, this will require some kind of constitutional amendment to block a fundamental change in American constitutional and political culture."
Advocacy groups are also supporting Morelle's proposal and highlighting what the recent ruling could mean for the future.
"The Supreme Court's decision in Trump v. United States has imposed serious obstacles to holding Trump accountable for his role in the violence on January 6 and the attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power," said Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert. "As Justice Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, under the holding of Trump v. United States, a president could order the assassination of a rival, take a bribe for pardons, or order a military coup and—in each case—be immune from criminal liability."
"It is incumbent upon Congress to fix this problem, and with his proposed constitutional amendment, Rep. Joseph Morelle is taking the first step to right an obvious constitutional wrong," she continued. "By design, it's not easy to pass a constitutional amendment. But it can be done—and in this case, it must be done. Public Citizen strongly supports this amendment, and along with our allies in the Not Above the Law coalition are committed to ensuring its passage, to restore presidential accountability and basic democratic norms."
People for the American Way president and CEO Svante Myrick stressed that "big problems need big solutions, and the Supreme Court's ruling granting presidents unprecedented immunity is a big problem. Not just now, in the specific case involving Donald Trump, but in countless foreseeable and unforeseeable ways in the future."
"Our democracy is built on the principle that nobody is above the law," he added. "People For the American Way is proud to support this proposed amendment to strengthen and shore up that principle at this critical moment in our history."
Common Cause has also endorsed the effort. Virginia Kase Solomón, the group's president and CEO, called the court's decision "dangerous" and a departure from "what the framers intended."
"We thank Congressman Morelle for his leadership to uphold the rule of law and ensure accountability for all Americans, and we urge Congress to quickly pass this constitutional amendment," she said.
In the United States, constitutional amendments may be proposed either by Congress with two-thirds majority support in both chambers or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures.
Although Morelle's proposal lacks the support it would need to get through Congress, it sends a clear signal to voters going into the November election, when control of both chambers is up for grabs and the American people will likely get to choose between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
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'Health Over Wealth': New Bill Would Crack Down on Private Equity in US Healthcare
"We have a duty to protect patients from greedy corporations that are prioritizing their bottom line over patient care," Rep. Pramila Jayapal said.
Jul 25, 2024
Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Pramila Jayapal on Thursday introduced legislation that would tighten the rules on private equity firms in the healthcare industry.
The Health Over Wealth Act would increase the powers of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to monitor and block private equity deals in the healthcare industry. It would require private equity firms buying healthcare providers to set up escrow accounts large enough to fund five years of operations, and would require more transparency on debt, executive pay, and other financial data, while prohibiting the "stripping" of assets.
"Private equity firms and greedy corporate executives are using the healthcare system as a piggybank," Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security, said in a statement. "Putting profit over patients' results in substandard care, while health workers suffer, and communities are left to clean up the mess."
Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, emphasized the toll that the private equity approach has on patients.
"Private equity firms buying up health care systems are simply bad news for patients, leading to worse health outcomes and higher bills," said Jayapal, who had previously introduced narrower legislation on private equity in healthcare. "We have a duty to protect patients from greedy corporations that are prioritizing their bottom line over patient care."
The bill's introduction came as the Senate HELP Committee on Thursday voted to launch an investigation into profit-first practices at Steward Health Care, a for-profit system formerly owned by a private equity firm and now in bankruptcy.
HELP voted to subpoena Steward CEO Ralph de la Torre, whom CBS News, which has conducted a series of investigations into the negative impact of private equity firms on community hospitals, described as "reclusive." De la Torre bought a 190-foot megayacht even as Steward's hospitals failed to pay their bills and keep supplies of life-saving equipment available, CBSreported.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), HELP's chair and a cosponsor of the Health Over Wealth Act, called out de la Torre on social media on Thursday.
"Private equity vultures are making a fortune by taking over hospitals and leaving them in shambles," he wrote. "It's time for the CEO of Steward Health Care to get off his yacht and explain to Congress how he got rich while bankrupting the hospitals he manages."
The other cosponsors of the new bill include only a handful of progressive senators and representatives, but concern about the role of private equity in healthcare goes beyond progressive circles. The HELP Committee, which includes 10 Republicans, voted 20-1 to launch the investigation into Steward. And a Bloomberg columnist on Thursday published an opinion piece entitled "Steward Health is a case study in executive greed" and subtitled: "Why is populism on the rise? The gutting of a community hospital system illustrates why so many Americans feel betrayed by big business."
The negative impact of private equity's role in the healthcare industry is significant. Researchers at Harvard Medical School found an "alarming increase in patient complications" at private equity-owned hospitals in a study published in December in JAMA, a leading medical journal.
The new bill, which Markey previewed at a field hearing in Massachusetts in April, may be a long-shot for passage, given corporate influence in Congress. Axioscalled it "more aspirational than legislative" at the time.
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