FOLKS, IF YOU DO NOT HERE YOUR INCUMBENT POL SHOUTING LOUDLY AND STRONGLY AGAINST ALL THESE POLICIES AND TPP-------THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEED TO GO! RUN AND VOTE FOR LABOR AND JUSTICE IN ALL PRIMARIES!
I want to take today through Friday to talk about why Obama and Congress are now ready to focus on domestic issues and why his mantra of helping the middle-class and poor is ridiculous......all the items on the Congressional agenda are tied to TPP and they intend to pass TPP in the near future.
The good news for US citizens is that TPP is illegal and a COUP against the US Constitution and American people and we can simply declare it NULL AND VOID when we reinstate Rule of Law.
I'm starting with the environmental issues in Obama's speech and TPP because we have a corporate 'public' media outlet....WYPR with commentators who pretend to lament issues that they really support.
You may have seen the Huffington Post article on TPP and the environment but continue down to see how Maryland is one big TPP sesspool thanks to your neo-liberal!
ALL THE CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND WILL CONTINUE TO PUSH THE TPP AGENDA!
In Maryland, labor and justice simply backs the worst of TPP neo-liberals even as they intend to make labor and justice just like Chinese workers and citizens. WHY ARE THEY NOT RUNNING LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES IN ALL PRIMARIES!!!!!??????
Regarding Obama's domestic agenda that all involves passing TPP:
Basu's shout out for attention to global warming is a HOOT isn't it! The US is the number one exporting now of all the raw materials that hasten global warming and Basu supports every one as this makes the rich richer in the US while it kills our environment. TPP makes sure that all those silly US environmental laws won't get in the way of corporate profit and that is why we have XL Pipeline preparing to export the worst methane and carbon emitter TAR SAND OIL. Basu is for building this pipeline....it creates jobs you know as he is in building a natural gas export right here in Maryland. Fracking is a great methane/carbon emitter. The US exports coal and raw timber all of which are great carbon emitters so all this talk of global warming by neo-liberals is only to sell windmill funding to make another source of profit for Wall Street investment firms. YOU CANNOT BE A NET EXPORTER OF ALL THE MATERIALS CREATING CARBON AND METHANE EMISSIONS AND SAY YOU ARE AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING FOR GOODNESS SAKE. All of Maryland pols are backing the natural gas terminal that will place fracking on steroids.
NEO-LIBERALS WILL VOTE ON A TPP BILL THAT KILLS ENVIRONMENTAL ENFORCEMENT AND THAT IS WHY WE HAVE SUCH A HIGH LEVEL OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEVASTATION TODAY....OBAMA AND CONGRESSIONAL NEO-LIBERALS ARE ALLOWING FREE TRADE OF ALL OF US NATURAL RESOURCES.
You wouldn't know that Obama's entire agenda surrounds the legislation needed to pass the TPP and we all know that has nothing to do with making a strong middle-class and helping the poor. Remember, there is no wealth inequality because tens of trillions of dollar in corporate fraud still needs to come back.
The reason we had a do-nothing Congress is that these few years your neo-liberal has been working on behalf of their state's global corporations in writing TPP and now that Obama's Trade Rep signed the TPP agreement Congress is ready to go full court passing all the domestic bills that are written just for TPP.
ALL OF MARYLAND POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS!!!!!
Let's look at each one to remember how they are attached to TPP and how they kill American workers and families. THESE ARE EVIL DUDES YOU ARE ELECTING AND RE-ELECTING FOLKS!
So why are corporate NPR/APM and WYPR not connecting these TPP/environment dots? More important, why are Maryland's environmental groups and 'progressive' action groups not sounding the alarm? Maryland Progressives give Maryland Assembly strong marks on environment without ever shouting that TPP will knock the socks off of anything local. Building windmills off of Maryland coast while exporting natural gas.....REALLY?
Let's look closer at what this environmental catastrophe means to labor and justice. First, look at the Incinerator project everyone is fighting here in the Baltimore area. Why would you build something like this with all kinds of 'green language' when we all know it is bad news for health and climate? THE INCINERATOR IS PART OF A GLOBAL CORPORATION THAT RUNS THESE AROUND THE WORLD -------VEOLA ENVIRONOMENT OWNED BY JOHNS HOPKINS.
Remember, VEOLA is a global corporation and is TPP is passed we will not have all those air quality standards met as all this hampers corporate profit!!!!!
WikiLeaks Exposes What Obama's Secret Trade Deal Would Do To The Environment
Posted: 01/15/2014 12:22 pm EST | Updated: 01/25/2014 4:01 pm EST
WASHINGTON -- WikiLeaks published a leaked draft of the environment chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Wednesday, and environmental groups are lining up to take a swing.
The leaked documents come from a meeting of the trade deal's chief negotiators held in Salt Lake City, Utah, from Nov. 19 to 24, 2013. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) includes 12 countries –- the United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei –- and would govern a number of international environmental and trade issues.
The draft indicates the pact will include a number of promises on the environment, but will lack strong enforcement tools. "When compared against other TPP chapters, the Environment Chapter is noteworthy for its absence of mandated clauses or meaningful enforcement measures," wrote WikiLeaks in its release. The chapter is intended to deal with issues like overfishing, trade of wood products, wildlife crime, and illegal logging. But most of the measures in the chapter are voluntary, rather than binding, and do not include penalties or criminal sanctions for violations. Compliance is largely left to the respective countries.
Enviros offered similar criticism. "The lack of fully-enforceable environmental safeguards means negotiators are allowing a unique opportunity to protect wildlife and support legal sustainable trade of renewable resources to slip through their fingers,” said Carter Roberts, president and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund, in a statement.
The leaked document from November is only a draft, but if the trade pact's final environmental chapter looks like it, it would make the Obama administration's environmental trade record "worse than George W. Bush’s," said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. “This draft chapter falls flat on every single one of our issues -- oceans, fish, wildlife, and forest protections -- and in fact, rolls back on the progress made in past free trade pacts.”
According to a report from the chairs of the TPP Environmental Working Group drafting the chapter, also released by WikiLeaks, there remains significant disagreement among the parties on many of the pact's provisions. The chairs wrote that Vietnam, Peru and Malaysia object to a provision calling for countries to "rationalize and phase out" fossil fuel subsidies "that encourage wasteful consumption." They also noted that the United States and Australia object to the climate change portion of the pact as it is written.
Negotiation of the pact has been underway since 2010, but all discussions take place entirely outside of public view. The Obama administration has already received backlash for leaked portions of the pact that indicate it would grant greater rights to corporations to challenge national laws in private courts.
Efforts to fast-track the trade deal met resistance from Democrats in Congress this week.
************************************
VEOLA ENVIRONMENT IS OWNED BY HIGHSTAR WITH JOHNS HOPKINS AS ITS MAJOR SHAREHOLDER AND THIS IS WHY O'MALLEY AND RAWLINGS-BLAKE ARE PUSHING THESE PLANTS IN MARYLAND.
It has nothing to do with greening or environmentalism.....it simply moves all public waste and recycling to this Hopkins' owned business VEOLA. As this happens, communities around it will see all kinds of health effects and the air quality already bad in Maryland will get worse------THAT'S A DOUBLE WIN FOR JOHNS HOPKINS AS ASTHMA IS THE NUMBER ONE HEALTH PROFIT FOR MARYLAND HOSPITALS!!!!
Just imagine how likely having a global health corporation like Hopkins owning and running the disposal of medical waste.....their major expense. Remember, in China there are no environmental laws and that is why all kinds of hazardous dumping and leeching has made China an industrial dump.
This policy is not only disgusting......but O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake and your Maryland Assembly and Baltimore City Hall neo-liberals are tying the funding of public schools to this Johns Hopkins business that kills the environment. If you look at who supports these incinerators--------Baltimore museums and many Maryland public school districts. The public sector tied to yet another corporation.
VEOLA ENVIRONMENT
Incineration Services
If you’re looking for an efficient way to destroy hazardous organic compounds and deal with a wide variety of waste materials, no other method matches the effectiveness of high-temperature incineration. Veolia Environmental Services provides the most environmentally compliant, safe and cost-effective incineration service in the industry. And, once incinerated, the resulting ash and other residue is stabilized and placed in permanent land disposal.
Safely Incinerate without Burning Through Your Budget
Our incineration services provide benefits such as:
Destruction of hazardous waste at a cost-effective price
Access to our network of incineration facilities, strategically located across the U.S. and fully permitted to meet all applicable regulations and requirements
The security of complete cradle-to-grave services, from collection and transportation of your hazardous waste materials, through the final disposal of any ash or other residue in a secure land disposal facility
A full-range incineration system that includes both rotary kilns and fixed-hearth incineration technology for the ultimate in flexibility for handling your most difficult hazardous wastes
The ability to handle bulk or drummed wastes, eliminating the expense of special containers or special packaging of your wastes
In many areas, access to the efficiencies and cost savings of rail transportation
Medical Waste Disposal
Manage all your medical waste disposal needs with a partner that can ensure your staff’s safety and your company’s regulatory compliance. Medical waste treatment can take place at Veolia facilities, if the waste is both medical and RCRA, or at audited and approved third party partner facilities. We also provide SHARPS+PAK® medical waste disposal services via U.S. mail, which is mainly designed for businesses with smaller waste quantities.
Medical Waste Disposal Services Customized for You
First, we conduct an initial medical waste review and breakdown analysis to help your company reduce waste and minimize your costs. Once your unique needs are determined, our partners train your staff on waste stream segregation, procedures and safety. Services offered include:
**************************************
Keep in mind Maryland's Governor O'Malley led the way for exporting natural gas while leading the Governor's Association because, of course, O'Malley is a raging Wall Street pol. Mike Miller has said this will happen as as all Maryland neo-liberals keep voting him as leader.....they will vote for it as well.
The infrastructure funding bill by Congress and by Maryland Assembly would fund the construction of this project. That is why they want this BOLIS OF MONEY as Clinton investment banker turned pol Dulaney moves forward.
ISN'T IT AMAZING THAT YOU NEVER HEAR ANY OF THIS FROM MARYLAND MEDIA OR WYPR AND MARYLAND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS ARE MOSTLY SILENT TO SOMETHING THAT WILL HAVE DEVASTATING ENVIRONMENTAL AFFECTS ON THE STATE???
I want to add that it is Frosh that heads the judiciary committee that vets judicial appointments and if you liked Maryland's court decision that MERS was not criminal.....you can expect that Frosh placed pro-global corporates judges in Maryland courts. See why we do not want Frosh as Maryland Attorney General? Wonder why Maryland labor groups are backing him?
Court Considers Natural Gas Exports From MD Terminal
Mon, 01/13/2014 - 11:02am
MAX EHRENFREUND, The Washington Post
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The future of a massive, controversial construction project on the Chesapeake Bay for exporting natural gas could depend on one poorly written sentence.
Attorneys for the Sierra Club were in court last week fighting the $3.8 billion proposal by Dominion Resources to renovate its terminal in Calvert County so the facility could send domestic gas overseas. The case — which turns on several words in a contract first signed in 1972 and rewritten over the years — is pending in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.
Labor and business leaders argue that construction would bring a huge influx of capital to a state still recovering from the financial crisis. But environmentalists say that the project would worsen global warming, and residents are concerned about the effects on traffic and property values in the sleepy coastal community of Lusby about 60 miles southeast of the District.
"We are all following it really closely," Kelly Canavan, president of a local community organization, said of the dispute between the Sierra Club and Dominion.
Canavan's group, the Accokeek, Mattawoman, Piscataway Creeks Communities Council, opposes Dominion's plans. She said the court case "is one of the strongest possibilities for actually stopping the project."
The case also demonstrates how radically the global energy economy can change in just a few years.
Dominion's Cove Point terminal, which began operating in 1978, was built to receive imported natural gas. But recently, few tankers have come through as the new drilling techniques commonly known as "fracking" have produced an unexpected glut of domestic shale gas.
Dominion now proposes to use Cove Point for export instead of import. But natural gas must be cooled into a liquid before it is loaded onto a tanker. Dominion will have to build cooling facilities at Cove Point — a project that would require three years and thousands of workers.
Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club — which aims to decrease the country's reliance on naturalgas — worry that allowing the exports would encourage domestic drilling, damage the ecology of the bay and ultimately hasten climate change.
Whether the project proceeds could depend on how the court interprets the contract, which curtails how the site can be used. The facility's original owner, Columbia Gas, initially signed the agreement with the Sierra Club and another environmental group. Relations between business and the environmental movement were friendlier then than they are today, and Columbia wanted to avoid a legal dispute.
Sierra argues that the most recent version of that agreement, which Dominion signed in 2005, a few years after acquiring the property, precludes the company from exporting natural gas from Cove Point by sea.
The agreement provides that Dominion can use the site for "receipt by tanker and the receipt or delivery bypipeline" of natural gas in its various forms.
According to the environmental group's lawyers, that phrase means that Cove Point can receive shipments of natural gas by sea or overland via pipeline, and that it can deliver gas to domestic customers, also viapipeline. Delivering gas to outgoing vessels is not permitted, they argue.
A lower court ruled against the Sierra Club last year. Circuit Judge James Salmon agreed with Dominion that the facility could make a "delivery by pipeline" to the pier where deep-water tankers dock.
The offshore pier, just over a mile from the coast, is indeed connected to land by an insulated pipeline along the bottom of the bay.
The Sierra Club appealed the decision.
The parties to the contract in 2005 did not anticipate that Dominion would ever need to export natural gas. During arguments Wednesday, appeals court judges questioned attorneys for both sides on economic and technological aspects of shipping gas at that time, trying to reconstruct a world that already seems far in the past.
Dominion has signed contracts with importers in India and Japan, who agreed to buy capacity at Cove Point for 20 years. The company asked the court to rule quickly on the case, citing the volatility of the global market for fossil fuels.
For those who live near the facility, the debate about Cove Point is much more than a disagreement over the meaning of "receipt or delivery."
Carolyn Hart, president of the Calvert County Chamber of Commerce, said her group's members are eager for the jobs and people they expect construction to bring to the area. "I can tell you, we're waiting," she said. Hart lives a quarter of a mile from the terminal, and she and her husband own a nearby wine shop.
Dominion said they are among many people who think the project will benefit the community. "The support for this kind of a project is extremely broad and very deep," said Chet Wade, a spokesman for Dominion.
Others worry about the risk of an industrial accident.
"We feel like Dominion is transferring environmental and health risks to their neighbors, and we're not getting compensated," said Sue Allison, who can see Cove Point's storage tanks from her kitchen window and made the trip to the courthouse in Annapolis to demonstrate her opposition to the project.
**************************************
Do you know that selling the coal fire- power plants with the deal with Exelon is an environmental greenhouse disaster and your Maryland Assembly pol voted for this merger deal that could have required these power plants be shut down? O'Malley handed them to Exelon who simply handed them to a connected figure and Maryland still has coal-fired power plants all by a governor who Maryland press labels a friend of the environment!!!!
I NEVER HEAR BASU TELLING US ALL THIS AS HE LAMENTS GREENHOUSE GAS LEVELS AND GLOBAL WARMING.....HE WILL SHOUT OUT TO BUILD WINDMILLS, BECAUSE THAT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE WITH ALL THIS OTHER BAD ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN MARYLAND!
Know where the windmills will be built? I know, Maryland pols said this was a job creator.....yet, very few Maryland workers will be involved. IT'S ABOUT CHANNELLING FEDERAL AND STATE FUNDING TO CAMPAIGN DONORS YOU KNOW!
Look below to see yet another foreign global corporation coming into the US to build manufacturing. Remember, TPP gives global corporations a pass on all US labor and justice laws if it cuts into profits.......TPP will allow Siemens to bring workers from around the world to work in Kansas and if Kansas citizens want a job.....they will work for the same third world wages these immigrants get...... THIS IS WHAT GREEN TECHNOLOGY BUSINESSES BRING TO THE US.....AND YOUR FEDERAL AND STATE TAX MONEY WILL SUBSIDIZE THE BUILDING OF THESE PLANTS BECAUSE.....AFTER ALL.....THEY CREATE JOBS!
See why WYPR does not connect the dots......see why public media was taken corporate?
Siemens will Build Wind Turbine Production Facility in the U.S.
05.05.2009 · Posted in Wind Energy
Additional capital investment in green technologies – 400 new jobs to be created
Erlangen, Germany, May 05, 2009
Siemens intends to build a new production facility for wind turbines in the state of Kansas. Initially, 400 new jobs are expected to be created in the new wind turbine production facility in Hutchinson, Kansas. When production begins at this facility, Siemens will be able to even more effectively meet the strong demand for wind turbine equipment in North and South America in the future.
75px Siemens AG logo.svg Siemens will Build Wind Turbine Production Facility in the U.S.“The United States already is and will continue to be one of the world’s fastest growing wind energy markets. We are thus intensifying our commitment to this green technology to further expand our leading global position in this field,” stated Peter Löscher, CEO of Siemens AG. “We are already the leading green infrastructure giant. And by making these investments, we will become even greener.” With revenues totaling EUR19 billion in fiscal year 2008, Siemens now has the world’s largest portfolio of environmental technologies.
Construction of the 300,000-square-foot nacelle production facility is scheduled to begin in August 2009. A nacelle is mounted on top of the tower and supports the rotor. It houses a wind turbine’s major components for electric power generation, including the gearbox, the drive train and the control electronics.
The nacelles to be produced in Kansas will weigh 90 tons and the first nacelle is expected to be shipped in December 2010. All nacelles produced in Hutchinson will be used in the company’s reliable 2.3-MW wind turbine product family. Initially, the factory’s planned annual output is approximately 650 nacelles – or 1,500 megawatts (MW).
“Just two years ago we opened a rotor blade manufacturing facility in Fort Madison, Iowa. By expanding our investment in Kansas, we are strengthening our presence in the U.S. and, at the same time, we are increasing the proximity to our U.S. customers. This new location will enable us to serve them more rapidly and cost-effectively,” said René Umlauft, CEO of Siemens Energy’s Renewable Energy Division.
Hutchinson is near the geographic center of the continental United States and offers a viable workforce and excellent transportation logistics. The factory will include direct loading onto rail, which will provide easy access to project locations throughout the Unites States and Canada. Shipments can also be made utilizing the barge facilities at the port of Catoosa, located 250 miles from the plant. Kansas also has excellent wind conditions. In terms of wind energy potential, this centrally located state ranks third in the U.S.
Since entering the wind industry in 2004, Siemens has greatly expanded its worldwide manufacturing network. In addition to opening and consequently expanding the wind turbine blade manufacturing facilities in Fort Madison, Iowa, USA, and Engesvang, Denmark, the Danish facilities in Brande and Aalborg have been expanded and a new R&D center in Boulder, USA, was established. Siemens’ global wind power business has grown from approximately 800 employees in 2004 to more than 5,500 today, which equals an increase of approximately 650 percent.
Wind power is an important feature of Siemens’ environmental portfolio. In 2008, revenue from the products and solutions of Siemens’ environmental portfolio was nearly EUR19 billion, which is equivalent to around a quarter of Siemens’ total revenue.
I want to take today through Friday to talk about why Obama and Congress are now ready to focus on domestic issues and why his mantra of helping the middle-class and poor is ridiculous......all the items on the Congressional agenda are tied to TPP and they intend to pass TPP in the near future.
The good news for US citizens is that TPP is illegal and a COUP against the US Constitution and American people and we can simply declare it NULL AND VOID when we reinstate Rule of Law.
I'm starting with the environmental issues in Obama's speech and TPP because we have a corporate 'public' media outlet....WYPR with commentators who pretend to lament issues that they really support.
You may have seen the Huffington Post article on TPP and the environment but continue down to see how Maryland is one big TPP sesspool thanks to your neo-liberal!
ALL THE CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND WILL CONTINUE TO PUSH THE TPP AGENDA!
In Maryland, labor and justice simply backs the worst of TPP neo-liberals even as they intend to make labor and justice just like Chinese workers and citizens. WHY ARE THEY NOT RUNNING LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATES IN ALL PRIMARIES!!!!!??????
Regarding Obama's domestic agenda that all involves passing TPP:
Basu's shout out for attention to global warming is a HOOT isn't it! The US is the number one exporting now of all the raw materials that hasten global warming and Basu supports every one as this makes the rich richer in the US while it kills our environment. TPP makes sure that all those silly US environmental laws won't get in the way of corporate profit and that is why we have XL Pipeline preparing to export the worst methane and carbon emitter TAR SAND OIL. Basu is for building this pipeline....it creates jobs you know as he is in building a natural gas export right here in Maryland. Fracking is a great methane/carbon emitter. The US exports coal and raw timber all of which are great carbon emitters so all this talk of global warming by neo-liberals is only to sell windmill funding to make another source of profit for Wall Street investment firms. YOU CANNOT BE A NET EXPORTER OF ALL THE MATERIALS CREATING CARBON AND METHANE EMISSIONS AND SAY YOU ARE AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING FOR GOODNESS SAKE. All of Maryland pols are backing the natural gas terminal that will place fracking on steroids.
NEO-LIBERALS WILL VOTE ON A TPP BILL THAT KILLS ENVIRONMENTAL ENFORCEMENT AND THAT IS WHY WE HAVE SUCH A HIGH LEVEL OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEVASTATION TODAY....OBAMA AND CONGRESSIONAL NEO-LIBERALS ARE ALLOWING FREE TRADE OF ALL OF US NATURAL RESOURCES.
You wouldn't know that Obama's entire agenda surrounds the legislation needed to pass the TPP and we all know that has nothing to do with making a strong middle-class and helping the poor. Remember, there is no wealth inequality because tens of trillions of dollar in corporate fraud still needs to come back.
The reason we had a do-nothing Congress is that these few years your neo-liberal has been working on behalf of their state's global corporations in writing TPP and now that Obama's Trade Rep signed the TPP agreement Congress is ready to go full court passing all the domestic bills that are written just for TPP.
ALL OF MARYLAND POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS!!!!!
Let's look at each one to remember how they are attached to TPP and how they kill American workers and families. THESE ARE EVIL DUDES YOU ARE ELECTING AND RE-ELECTING FOLKS!
So why are corporate NPR/APM and WYPR not connecting these TPP/environment dots? More important, why are Maryland's environmental groups and 'progressive' action groups not sounding the alarm? Maryland Progressives give Maryland Assembly strong marks on environment without ever shouting that TPP will knock the socks off of anything local. Building windmills off of Maryland coast while exporting natural gas.....REALLY?
Let's look closer at what this environmental catastrophe means to labor and justice. First, look at the Incinerator project everyone is fighting here in the Baltimore area. Why would you build something like this with all kinds of 'green language' when we all know it is bad news for health and climate? THE INCINERATOR IS PART OF A GLOBAL CORPORATION THAT RUNS THESE AROUND THE WORLD -------VEOLA ENVIRONOMENT OWNED BY JOHNS HOPKINS.
Remember, VEOLA is a global corporation and is TPP is passed we will not have all those air quality standards met as all this hampers corporate profit!!!!!
WikiLeaks Exposes What Obama's Secret Trade Deal Would Do To The Environment
Posted: 01/15/2014 12:22 pm EST | Updated: 01/25/2014 4:01 pm EST
WASHINGTON -- WikiLeaks published a leaked draft of the environment chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Wednesday, and environmental groups are lining up to take a swing.
The leaked documents come from a meeting of the trade deal's chief negotiators held in Salt Lake City, Utah, from Nov. 19 to 24, 2013. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) includes 12 countries –- the United States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei –- and would govern a number of international environmental and trade issues.
The draft indicates the pact will include a number of promises on the environment, but will lack strong enforcement tools. "When compared against other TPP chapters, the Environment Chapter is noteworthy for its absence of mandated clauses or meaningful enforcement measures," wrote WikiLeaks in its release. The chapter is intended to deal with issues like overfishing, trade of wood products, wildlife crime, and illegal logging. But most of the measures in the chapter are voluntary, rather than binding, and do not include penalties or criminal sanctions for violations. Compliance is largely left to the respective countries.
Enviros offered similar criticism. "The lack of fully-enforceable environmental safeguards means negotiators are allowing a unique opportunity to protect wildlife and support legal sustainable trade of renewable resources to slip through their fingers,” said Carter Roberts, president and CEO of the World Wildlife Fund, in a statement.
The leaked document from November is only a draft, but if the trade pact's final environmental chapter looks like it, it would make the Obama administration's environmental trade record "worse than George W. Bush’s," said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club. “This draft chapter falls flat on every single one of our issues -- oceans, fish, wildlife, and forest protections -- and in fact, rolls back on the progress made in past free trade pacts.”
According to a report from the chairs of the TPP Environmental Working Group drafting the chapter, also released by WikiLeaks, there remains significant disagreement among the parties on many of the pact's provisions. The chairs wrote that Vietnam, Peru and Malaysia object to a provision calling for countries to "rationalize and phase out" fossil fuel subsidies "that encourage wasteful consumption." They also noted that the United States and Australia object to the climate change portion of the pact as it is written.
Negotiation of the pact has been underway since 2010, but all discussions take place entirely outside of public view. The Obama administration has already received backlash for leaked portions of the pact that indicate it would grant greater rights to corporations to challenge national laws in private courts.
Efforts to fast-track the trade deal met resistance from Democrats in Congress this week.
************************************
VEOLA ENVIRONMENT IS OWNED BY HIGHSTAR WITH JOHNS HOPKINS AS ITS MAJOR SHAREHOLDER AND THIS IS WHY O'MALLEY AND RAWLINGS-BLAKE ARE PUSHING THESE PLANTS IN MARYLAND.
It has nothing to do with greening or environmentalism.....it simply moves all public waste and recycling to this Hopkins' owned business VEOLA. As this happens, communities around it will see all kinds of health effects and the air quality already bad in Maryland will get worse------THAT'S A DOUBLE WIN FOR JOHNS HOPKINS AS ASTHMA IS THE NUMBER ONE HEALTH PROFIT FOR MARYLAND HOSPITALS!!!!
Just imagine how likely having a global health corporation like Hopkins owning and running the disposal of medical waste.....their major expense. Remember, in China there are no environmental laws and that is why all kinds of hazardous dumping and leeching has made China an industrial dump.
This policy is not only disgusting......but O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake and your Maryland Assembly and Baltimore City Hall neo-liberals are tying the funding of public schools to this Johns Hopkins business that kills the environment. If you look at who supports these incinerators--------Baltimore museums and many Maryland public school districts. The public sector tied to yet another corporation.
VEOLA ENVIRONMENT
Incineration Services
If you’re looking for an efficient way to destroy hazardous organic compounds and deal with a wide variety of waste materials, no other method matches the effectiveness of high-temperature incineration. Veolia Environmental Services provides the most environmentally compliant, safe and cost-effective incineration service in the industry. And, once incinerated, the resulting ash and other residue is stabilized and placed in permanent land disposal.
Safely Incinerate without Burning Through Your Budget
Our incineration services provide benefits such as:
Destruction of hazardous waste at a cost-effective price
Access to our network of incineration facilities, strategically located across the U.S. and fully permitted to meet all applicable regulations and requirements
The security of complete cradle-to-grave services, from collection and transportation of your hazardous waste materials, through the final disposal of any ash or other residue in a secure land disposal facility
A full-range incineration system that includes both rotary kilns and fixed-hearth incineration technology for the ultimate in flexibility for handling your most difficult hazardous wastes
The ability to handle bulk or drummed wastes, eliminating the expense of special containers or special packaging of your wastes
In many areas, access to the efficiencies and cost savings of rail transportation
Medical Waste Disposal
Manage all your medical waste disposal needs with a partner that can ensure your staff’s safety and your company’s regulatory compliance. Medical waste treatment can take place at Veolia facilities, if the waste is both medical and RCRA, or at audited and approved third party partner facilities. We also provide SHARPS+PAK® medical waste disposal services via U.S. mail, which is mainly designed for businesses with smaller waste quantities.
Medical Waste Disposal Services Customized for You
First, we conduct an initial medical waste review and breakdown analysis to help your company reduce waste and minimize your costs. Once your unique needs are determined, our partners train your staff on waste stream segregation, procedures and safety. Services offered include:
**************************************
Keep in mind Maryland's Governor O'Malley led the way for exporting natural gas while leading the Governor's Association because, of course, O'Malley is a raging Wall Street pol. Mike Miller has said this will happen as as all Maryland neo-liberals keep voting him as leader.....they will vote for it as well.
The infrastructure funding bill by Congress and by Maryland Assembly would fund the construction of this project. That is why they want this BOLIS OF MONEY as Clinton investment banker turned pol Dulaney moves forward.
ISN'T IT AMAZING THAT YOU NEVER HEAR ANY OF THIS FROM MARYLAND MEDIA OR WYPR AND MARYLAND ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS ARE MOSTLY SILENT TO SOMETHING THAT WILL HAVE DEVASTATING ENVIRONMENTAL AFFECTS ON THE STATE???
I want to add that it is Frosh that heads the judiciary committee that vets judicial appointments and if you liked Maryland's court decision that MERS was not criminal.....you can expect that Frosh placed pro-global corporates judges in Maryland courts. See why we do not want Frosh as Maryland Attorney General? Wonder why Maryland labor groups are backing him?
Court Considers Natural Gas Exports From MD Terminal
Mon, 01/13/2014 - 11:02am
MAX EHRENFREUND, The Washington Post
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — The future of a massive, controversial construction project on the Chesapeake Bay for exporting natural gas could depend on one poorly written sentence.
Attorneys for the Sierra Club were in court last week fighting the $3.8 billion proposal by Dominion Resources to renovate its terminal in Calvert County so the facility could send domestic gas overseas. The case — which turns on several words in a contract first signed in 1972 and rewritten over the years — is pending in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.
Labor and business leaders argue that construction would bring a huge influx of capital to a state still recovering from the financial crisis. But environmentalists say that the project would worsen global warming, and residents are concerned about the effects on traffic and property values in the sleepy coastal community of Lusby about 60 miles southeast of the District.
"We are all following it really closely," Kelly Canavan, president of a local community organization, said of the dispute between the Sierra Club and Dominion.
Canavan's group, the Accokeek, Mattawoman, Piscataway Creeks Communities Council, opposes Dominion's plans. She said the court case "is one of the strongest possibilities for actually stopping the project."
The case also demonstrates how radically the global energy economy can change in just a few years.
Dominion's Cove Point terminal, which began operating in 1978, was built to receive imported natural gas. But recently, few tankers have come through as the new drilling techniques commonly known as "fracking" have produced an unexpected glut of domestic shale gas.
Dominion now proposes to use Cove Point for export instead of import. But natural gas must be cooled into a liquid before it is loaded onto a tanker. Dominion will have to build cooling facilities at Cove Point — a project that would require three years and thousands of workers.
Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club — which aims to decrease the country's reliance on naturalgas — worry that allowing the exports would encourage domestic drilling, damage the ecology of the bay and ultimately hasten climate change.
Whether the project proceeds could depend on how the court interprets the contract, which curtails how the site can be used. The facility's original owner, Columbia Gas, initially signed the agreement with the Sierra Club and another environmental group. Relations between business and the environmental movement were friendlier then than they are today, and Columbia wanted to avoid a legal dispute.
Sierra argues that the most recent version of that agreement, which Dominion signed in 2005, a few years after acquiring the property, precludes the company from exporting natural gas from Cove Point by sea.
The agreement provides that Dominion can use the site for "receipt by tanker and the receipt or delivery bypipeline" of natural gas in its various forms.
According to the environmental group's lawyers, that phrase means that Cove Point can receive shipments of natural gas by sea or overland via pipeline, and that it can deliver gas to domestic customers, also viapipeline. Delivering gas to outgoing vessels is not permitted, they argue.
A lower court ruled against the Sierra Club last year. Circuit Judge James Salmon agreed with Dominion that the facility could make a "delivery by pipeline" to the pier where deep-water tankers dock.
The offshore pier, just over a mile from the coast, is indeed connected to land by an insulated pipeline along the bottom of the bay.
The Sierra Club appealed the decision.
The parties to the contract in 2005 did not anticipate that Dominion would ever need to export natural gas. During arguments Wednesday, appeals court judges questioned attorneys for both sides on economic and technological aspects of shipping gas at that time, trying to reconstruct a world that already seems far in the past.
Dominion has signed contracts with importers in India and Japan, who agreed to buy capacity at Cove Point for 20 years. The company asked the court to rule quickly on the case, citing the volatility of the global market for fossil fuels.
For those who live near the facility, the debate about Cove Point is much more than a disagreement over the meaning of "receipt or delivery."
Carolyn Hart, president of the Calvert County Chamber of Commerce, said her group's members are eager for the jobs and people they expect construction to bring to the area. "I can tell you, we're waiting," she said. Hart lives a quarter of a mile from the terminal, and she and her husband own a nearby wine shop.
Dominion said they are among many people who think the project will benefit the community. "The support for this kind of a project is extremely broad and very deep," said Chet Wade, a spokesman for Dominion.
Others worry about the risk of an industrial accident.
"We feel like Dominion is transferring environmental and health risks to their neighbors, and we're not getting compensated," said Sue Allison, who can see Cove Point's storage tanks from her kitchen window and made the trip to the courthouse in Annapolis to demonstrate her opposition to the project.
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Do you know that selling the coal fire- power plants with the deal with Exelon is an environmental greenhouse disaster and your Maryland Assembly pol voted for this merger deal that could have required these power plants be shut down? O'Malley handed them to Exelon who simply handed them to a connected figure and Maryland still has coal-fired power plants all by a governor who Maryland press labels a friend of the environment!!!!
I NEVER HEAR BASU TELLING US ALL THIS AS HE LAMENTS GREENHOUSE GAS LEVELS AND GLOBAL WARMING.....HE WILL SHOUT OUT TO BUILD WINDMILLS, BECAUSE THAT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE WITH ALL THIS OTHER BAD ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN MARYLAND!
Know where the windmills will be built? I know, Maryland pols said this was a job creator.....yet, very few Maryland workers will be involved. IT'S ABOUT CHANNELLING FEDERAL AND STATE FUNDING TO CAMPAIGN DONORS YOU KNOW!
Look below to see yet another foreign global corporation coming into the US to build manufacturing. Remember, TPP gives global corporations a pass on all US labor and justice laws if it cuts into profits.......TPP will allow Siemens to bring workers from around the world to work in Kansas and if Kansas citizens want a job.....they will work for the same third world wages these immigrants get...... THIS IS WHAT GREEN TECHNOLOGY BUSINESSES BRING TO THE US.....AND YOUR FEDERAL AND STATE TAX MONEY WILL SUBSIDIZE THE BUILDING OF THESE PLANTS BECAUSE.....AFTER ALL.....THEY CREATE JOBS!
See why WYPR does not connect the dots......see why public media was taken corporate?
Siemens will Build Wind Turbine Production Facility in the U.S.
05.05.2009 · Posted in Wind Energy
Additional capital investment in green technologies – 400 new jobs to be created
Erlangen, Germany, May 05, 2009
Siemens intends to build a new production facility for wind turbines in the state of Kansas. Initially, 400 new jobs are expected to be created in the new wind turbine production facility in Hutchinson, Kansas. When production begins at this facility, Siemens will be able to even more effectively meet the strong demand for wind turbine equipment in North and South America in the future.
75px Siemens AG logo.svg Siemens will Build Wind Turbine Production Facility in the U.S.“The United States already is and will continue to be one of the world’s fastest growing wind energy markets. We are thus intensifying our commitment to this green technology to further expand our leading global position in this field,” stated Peter Löscher, CEO of Siemens AG. “We are already the leading green infrastructure giant. And by making these investments, we will become even greener.” With revenues totaling EUR19 billion in fiscal year 2008, Siemens now has the world’s largest portfolio of environmental technologies.
Construction of the 300,000-square-foot nacelle production facility is scheduled to begin in August 2009. A nacelle is mounted on top of the tower and supports the rotor. It houses a wind turbine’s major components for electric power generation, including the gearbox, the drive train and the control electronics.
The nacelles to be produced in Kansas will weigh 90 tons and the first nacelle is expected to be shipped in December 2010. All nacelles produced in Hutchinson will be used in the company’s reliable 2.3-MW wind turbine product family. Initially, the factory’s planned annual output is approximately 650 nacelles – or 1,500 megawatts (MW).
“Just two years ago we opened a rotor blade manufacturing facility in Fort Madison, Iowa. By expanding our investment in Kansas, we are strengthening our presence in the U.S. and, at the same time, we are increasing the proximity to our U.S. customers. This new location will enable us to serve them more rapidly and cost-effectively,” said René Umlauft, CEO of Siemens Energy’s Renewable Energy Division.
Hutchinson is near the geographic center of the continental United States and offers a viable workforce and excellent transportation logistics. The factory will include direct loading onto rail, which will provide easy access to project locations throughout the Unites States and Canada. Shipments can also be made utilizing the barge facilities at the port of Catoosa, located 250 miles from the plant. Kansas also has excellent wind conditions. In terms of wind energy potential, this centrally located state ranks third in the U.S.
Since entering the wind industry in 2004, Siemens has greatly expanded its worldwide manufacturing network. In addition to opening and consequently expanding the wind turbine blade manufacturing facilities in Fort Madison, Iowa, USA, and Engesvang, Denmark, the Danish facilities in Brande and Aalborg have been expanded and a new R&D center in Boulder, USA, was established. Siemens’ global wind power business has grown from approximately 800 employees in 2004 to more than 5,500 today, which equals an increase of approximately 650 percent.
Wind power is an important feature of Siemens’ environmental portfolio. In 2008, revenue from the products and solutions of Siemens’ environmental portfolio was nearly EUR19 billion, which is equivalent to around a quarter of Siemens’ total revenue.
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