The Loma Prietan
September 2002
Loma Prieta Pressures Rep. Anna Eshoo: No on Anti-Environmental Fast-Track
by Rafael Reyes
In July, 2002, with the vote for the Bush administration's anti-environmental Fast-track bill approaching, the Loma Prieta Chapter took action to increase the pressure on swing voter Anna Eshoo, House representative from the 14th Congressional District.
Coordinating with coalition partners, the Chapter held a town hall meeting which drew over 80 of her constituents.
The program included the screening of Bill Moyer's excellent documentary on NAFTA's Chapter 11 "investor protections" as well as presentations by Chapter Chair Rafael Reyes, Responsible Trade Program Director Dan Seligman, and Tim Paulson, Political Director of the San Mateo County Central Labor Council.
The "investor protection" provisions of NAFTA allow foreign corporations to sue for damages if they encounter regulations that negatively affect their business. These provisions are so broad that they effectively allow corporations to attack basic health and environmental protections.
Fast-track empowers the Bush Administration to expand NAFTA to numerous additional countries with little congressional oversight and, in doing so, expand NAFTA's Chapter 11.
In California, NAFTA's Chapter 11 hits very close to home. The State is seeking to ban MTBE, a gas additive and known carcinogen contaminating the State's limited water supplies. The ban effort has been met with a lawsuit from Methanex Corporation of Canada, seeking damages of nearly a billion dollars for lost future profits.
Sierra Club Responsible Trade Program Director Dan Seligman rallied the crowd declaring, "NAFTA's Chapter 11 threatens our basic health and environmental protections. We must take action to stop Fast-track and prevent these anti-environmental trade agreements from being expanded."
Tim Paulson further discussed the negative consequences of Fast-track for working families. The crowd responded by handwriting postcards and placing phone calls to Rep. Eshoo's office.
The MTBE case is one of nearly 25 lawsuits that have been filed under NAFTA's Chapter 11. Many of these could not have been filed under United States' law. A similar case resulted in Canada settling for $16 million dollars to U.S.-based Ethyl Corporation due to Canadian efforts to ban another gas additive, MMT, which is already banned for most use in the United States. Canada not only paid the money but they rolled back the ban.
Unfortunately, Fast-track passed. In a midnight session at the end of July, Republicans cut a deal which led to the passage of the Fast-track bill 215-212 in the House of Representatives.
"The House passed this particularly nasty bit of corporate welfare at 3:30 a.m...by the slimmest of margins. The vote was heavily partisan, with only a handful of Democrats voting with the Republican majority. As I've said before, we had much more to gain in this fight than we had to lose," stated Dan Seligman.
Representative Eshoo and our other representatives Mike Honda, Zoe Lofgren and Tom Lantos got the Sierra Club's message and despite considerable pressure voted against Fast-track. Many others have come to recognize the serious flaws in NAFTA and Fast-track. The campaign to change NAFTA's damaging investor provisions will continue. We should thank our representatives for taking a stand against this anti-environmental legislation.