January, 26 2022, 07:21pm EDT
100-Plus Environmental Groups Urge Agriculture Secretary to Block Oil Train Railway Through Utah, Colorado
WASHINGTON
More than 100 environmental organizations, representing millions of supporters across the country, urged Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack today to block a proposed right-of-way through a Utah national forest that would enable construction of the Uinta Basin Railway.
The railway's construction would result in a quadrupling of fossil fuel production in northeast Utah's Uinta Basin, worsening dangerous smog in an area that already violates federal pollution standards because of oil and gas extraction. Railway developers plan to run up to 10 two-mile-long oil trains per day through drought-stricken, wildfire-prone landscapes in Utah and Colorado, including a long stretch of the Colorado River, the source of drinking water for 40 million people.
"The harm from this proposed railway will exacerbate the climate emergency, increase the risk of wildfires and oil spills, put pressure on our already strained rail system and increase pollution while undermining President Biden's goals to address the climate crisis," the letter said.
The railway is expected to increase oil production in the Uinta Basin by up to 350,000 barrels a day. That's conservatively estimated at 53 million tons of carbon dioxide per year -- equivalent to emissions from six of Utah's dirtiest coal plants.
"The administration can halt this filthy oil train in its tracks and demonstrate its commitment curbing climate change," said Randi Spivak, public lands program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "The Unita Basin Railway runs counter to everything Biden says he stands for. It's a climate-killing fossil fuel behemoth that will endanger Utahns and Coloradoans and worsen the climate emergency. It needs to be stopped now."
In addition to undermining Biden's pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the federal government's own analysis shows the railway would cause irreversible environmental damage.
According to the federal environmental analysis, the 88-mile-long railway would dig up Utah streams with more than 400 crossings and strip bare or pave over 10,000 acres of wildlife habitat, including crucial areas on Forest Service land that bighorn sheep and mule deer need to survive. Bulldozers and train traffic would drive imperiled greater sage grouse out of their mating and nesting grounds and, it is feared, wipe them out in the region.
Nearly all the railway through Ashley National Forest -- 12 miles with plans for five bridges and three tunnels -- would be on public lands protected by the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
The oil trains would increase the risk of fires and oil spills along the route through Colorado, including the vulnerable Colorado River corridor, on their way to Gulf Coast refineries. Ramped-up fossil fuel production in the Uinta Basin would likely increase smog along the western slope of Colorado's Rocky Mountains.
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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Privacy Defenders Decry 'Spy Draft' in Section 702 Renewal Advanced by Senate
"It's not about who RISAA allows the government to spy on, it's about who RISAA allows the government to force to spy," explained one critic.
Apr 18, 2024
Civil liberties defenders on Thursday decried the U.S. Senate's advancement of the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, which critics say lawmakers are trying to ram through without protection against warrantless surveillance and with a provision that would effectively make every American a spy whether they like it or not.
Senators voted 67-32 in favor of a cloture motion to begin voting on RISAA, a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which expires on Friday. FISA—a highly controversial law that has been abused hundreds of thousands of times—allows warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens but also often sweeps up Americans' communication data in the process.
In a 273-147 vote last week, House lawmakers passed RISAA, including an amendment critics say dramatically expands the government's unchecked surveillance authority by compelling a wide range of individuals and organizations—including businesses and the media—to cooperate in government spying operations.
This so-called "Make Everyone a Spy" clause would allow the attorney general or director of national intelligence to force electronic communication service providers to "immediately provide... all information, facilities, or assistance" the government deems necessary.
"This bill would basically allow the government to institute a spy draft," Seth Stern, director of advocacy at Freedom of the Press Foundation, warned Thursday. "It will lead to significant distrust between journalists and sources, not to mention everyone else."
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In addition to the "Make Everyone a Spy" provision, civil libertarians have sounded the alarm over the House lawmakers' rejection of an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the legislation.
Critics accuse Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and colleagues including Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner (D-Va.) of trying to rush a vote on RISAA while disingenuously claiming Section 702's powers will expire with the law on Friday. That's a misleading claim, as a national security court earlier this month approved the government's request to continue a disputed surveillance program even if Section 702 lapses.
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Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)—who
said earlier this week that the bill would dragoon the American people into becoming "an agent for Big Brother"—on Thursday argued that "this issue demands a debate about meaningful reforms, not a rushed vote to rubber-stamp more warrantless government surveillance powers."
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However, the amendment contains exceptions to the warrant requirement in the event of unspecified emergencies and cyberattacks.
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The Biden administration and U.S. intelligence agencies vehemently oppose the Durbin-Cramer amendment. The White House called the measure "a reckless policy choice contrary to the key lessons of 9/11 and not grounded in any constitutional requirement or statute."
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On Wednesday, the House also passed the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act, which would prohibit the government from buying Americans' information from data brokers if it would otherwise need a warrant to obtain the data, which includes location and internet records. The Senate will now take up FANFSA.
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Since Israel launched what the International Court of Justice has said is a "plausibly" genocidal assault of the Gaza Strip in response to a Hamas-led October attack, the Biden administration has blocked three cease-fire resolutions at the Security Council. Under mounting global pressure, the U.S. finally abstained last month, allowing a cease-fire measure to pass.
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"We came to the Security Council today as an important historic moment, regionally and internationally, so that we could salvage what can be saved. We place you before a historic responsibility to establish the foundations of a just and comprehensive peace in our region."
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The arrests of dozens of Columbia University and Barnard College students on Thursday "galvanized" other supporters of Palestinian rights on the campuses, as hundreds of students occupied the school's western lawn after New York City police filled at least two buses with protesters who had been detained for setting up an encampment.
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Columbia President Minouche Shafik informed the campus community on Thursday that she had authorized the police to clear the encampment.
As it has been in the past, the school has become a center of anti-war protests—and crackdowns by school officials and the police—since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza in October.
Pro-Palestinian students and alumni have demanded that Columbia divest from companies that profit from Israel's apartheid policies in the occupied Palestinian territories and cancel its dual degree program with Tel Aviv University.
In response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations, Columbia in November suspended the campus chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine—an action that pushed the New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal to file a lawsuit on behalf of the students last month.
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"Correct," replied Shafik.
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