September, 12 2022, 12:41pm EDT
As Climate Crisis Intensifies, Fossil Fuel Companies Seek to Silence their Critics
WASHINGTON
New research released by EarthRights International today reveals that the fossil fuel industry has targeted more than 150 environmental activists and community leaders with lawsuits and other forms of judicial intimidation over the past ten years. The Fossil Fuel Industry's Use of SLAPPs and Judicial Harassment in the United States shows that as public concern for the climate crisis grows, fossil fuel companies have used the legal system to threaten the First Amendment rights of those who speak out against its practices. The analysis is the first to quantify the fossil fuel industry's abuse of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) and offer steps for policymakers, civil society, and the private sector to take to end the use of these and other judicial abuses.
"The fossil fuel industry has responded to growing public concern about climate change by retaliating against those who challenge its practices," said EarthRights Senior Policy Advisor Kirk Herbertson, the author of the report. "We cannot let the oil, gas, and mining industries weaponize the legal system to silence their critics. We must adopt anti-SLAPP laws to ensure that all Americans can effectively exercise their First Amendment rights."
The term SLAPP refers to a lawsuit that intends to silence or punish those who use their constitutionally protected rights to speak up about a matter of public concern. SLAPPs and other forms of judicial intimidation are part of a broader global trend of governments and corporations acting to close civic space and silence activists. Those who speak up about environmental, land, and Indigenous rights face higher levels of violence than any other group. In many countries, well-connected business leaders and politicians order attacks and assassinations of their critics with impunity.
Last year, the Native Federation of the Madre de Dios River and its Tributaries (FENAMAD), a partner of EarthRights in Peru, was the target of a SLAPP after it denounced illegal logging in the Amazon. In 2017, Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, sued nonprofit organizations and individual water protectors, including EarthRights client Krystal Two Bulls, for supporting the Standing Rock protests. The company demanded $900 million in damages under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The company's chief executive admitted the objective of the suit was not to obtain monetary damages but to "send a message" about protests like Standing Rock.
Additionally, fossil fuel companies have lobbied for anti-protest laws that impose stricter penalties on protesters. Some laws have turned minor offenses such as trespassing on private property into felonies if they occur near oil and gas facilities which are defined as "critical infrastructure." To date, 17 states have passed such measures into law.
SLAPPs can impose devastating consequences on their victims, draining them financially and emotionally and discouraging them from exercising their rights to free speech. Many SLAPP victims choose to end their advocacy rather than endure litigation. They may reach settlement agreements with their attackers, signing away their First Amendment rights.
To uphold the right of Americans to exercise their right to free speech and preserve our democracy, EarthRights recommends that:
- Congress and state legislatures adopt strong anti-SLAPP laws that cover all federal and state courts.
- Civil society and media organizations provide support for at-risk people and organizations before attacks occur.
- Trial lawyers' associations engage actively in anti-SLAPP legislative efforts to ensure a balanced approach between plaintiffs' and defendants' rights.
- Courts and bar associations discipline lawyers who file SLAPP suits.
- Federal judicial conferences and state judicial oversight bodies sanction those who use abusive subpoenas.
- Companies adopt policies of non-retaliation against their critics.
- Federal and state law enforcement agencies stop equating protestors with terrorists.
- The federal government places conditions on the forms of support it grants to the fossil fuel industry.
EarthRights International (ERI) is a nongovernmental, nonprofit organization that combines the power of law and the power of people in defense of human rights and the environment, which we define as "earth rights." We specialize in fact-finding, legal actions against perpetrators of earth rights abuses, training grassroots and community leaders, and advocacy campaigns. Through these strategies, EarthRights International seeks to end earth rights abuses, to provide real solutions for real people, and to promote and protect human rights and the environment in the communities where we work.
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Amazon Won't Display Tariff Costs After Trump Whines to Bezos
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said all companies should be "displaying how much tariffs contribute to the total price of products."
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Amazon said Tuesday that it would not display tariff costs next to products on its website after U.S. President Donald Trump called the e-commerce giant's billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos, to complain about the reported plan.
Citing an unnamed person familiar with Amazon's supposed plan, Punchbowl Newsreported that "the shopping site will display how much of an item's cost is derived from tariffs—right next to the product's total listed price."
Many Amazon products come from China. While U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed Sunday that "there is a path" to a tariff deal with the Chinese government, Trump has recently caused global economic alarm by hitting the country with a 145% tax and imposing a 10% minimum for other nations.
According toCNN, which spoke with two senior White House officials on Tuesday, Trump's call to Bezos "came shortly after one of the senior officials phoned the president to inform him of the story" from Punchbowl.
"Of course he was pissed," one officials said of Trump. "Why should a multibillion-dollar company pass off costs to consumers?"
Asked about how the call with Bezos went, Trump told reporters: "Great. Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific. He solved the problem very quickly, and he did the right thing, and he's a good guy."
Earlier Tuesday, during a briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called Amazon's reported plan "a hostile and political act," and said that "this is another reason why Americans should buy American."
Leavitt also asked why Amazon didn't have such displays during the Biden administration and held up a printed version of a 2021 Reutersreport about the company's "compliance with the Chinese government edict" to stop allowing customer ratings and reviews in China, allegedly prompted by negative feedback left on a collection President Xi Jinping's speeches and writings.
Asked whether Bezos is "still a Trump supporter," Leavitt said that she "will not speak to" the president's relationship with him.
As CNBCdetailed Tuesday:
Less than two hours after the press briefing, an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC that the company was only ever considering listing tariff charges on some products for Amazon Haul, its budget-focused shopping section.
"The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store has considered listing import charges on certain products," the spokesperson said. "This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties."
But in a follow-up statement an hour after that one, the spokesperson clarified that the plan to show tariff surcharges was "never approved" and is "not going to happen."
In response to Bloomberg also reporting on Amazon's claim that tariff displays were never under consideration for the company's main site, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick wrote on social media Tuesday, "Good move."
Before Amazon publicly killed any plans for showing consumers the costs from Trump's import taxes, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on the chamber's floor Tuesday that companies should be "displaying how much tariffs contribute to the total price of products."
"I urge more companies, particularly national retailers that compete with Amazon, to adopt this practice. If Amazon has the courage to display why prices are going up because of tariffs, so should all of our other national retailers who compete with them. And I am calling on them to do it now," he said.
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) on Tuesday framed the whole incident as an example of how "Trump has created a government by and for the billionaires," declaring: "If anyone ever doubted that Trump, and Musk, and Bezos, and the billionaires are all [on] one team, just look at what happened at Amazon today. Bezos immediately caved and walked back a plan to tell Americans how much Trump's tariffs are costing them."
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As the owner of
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"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.
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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.
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“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.
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“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
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