May, 26 2011, 03:58pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Dallas Jamison, Senior Communications Director; cell- 720.333.1494; djamison@constitutionproject.org
Constitution Project Dismayed by House Action on National Defense Authorization Act
Today, the House of Representatives passed its version of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act ("NDAA"). The bill includes harmful provisions that continue the ban on the use of traditional federal courts to try the remaining Guantanamo detainees (Section 1039), and extends those restrictions to encompass all non-citizen terrorism suspects, thereby requiring military commission trial of all foreign terrorism suspects.
WASHINGTON
Today, the House of Representatives passed its version of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act ("NDAA"). The bill includes harmful provisions that continue the ban on the use of traditional federal courts to try the remaining Guantanamo detainees (Section 1039), and extends those restrictions to encompass all non-citizen terrorism suspects, thereby requiring military commission trial of all foreign terrorism suspects. (Buchanan Amendment). The Constitution Project (TCP) is also deeply concerned by the inclusion of Section 1034, which "affirms that the United States is engaged in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated forces," but was never the subject of independent hearings or a full public debate.
The following can be attributed to TCP Counsel Mason C. Clutter: "The Constitution Project is extremely disappointed in the House's refusal to reverse the harmful restrictions on the use of America's criminal justice system to try Guantanamo detainees. The distrust that the House has shown of our courts is alarming and unfounded. Members of Congress continue to strip the United States of one of its most valuable tools in the fight against terrorism-federal courts. We urge the Senate to thoroughly evaluate these troubling provisions and work to untie the President's hands to better protect the security of the United States.
We are also dismayed by the House's failure to heed the advice of our bipartisan War Powers Committee regarding Section 1034. Section 1034 was passed without full consideration of whether or not any new authorization for the use of force is warranted. We urge the Senate to recognize this failure and to stand up and require full deliberation of the need for and proper scope of such a provision."
Last week, members of TCP's bipartisan War Powers Committee sent a letter to the House calling on Congress to "act to closely examine whether or not Section 1034 is appropriate."In its 2005 report entitled Deciding to Use Force Abroad: War Powers in a System of Checks and Balances , The Constitution Project's War Powers Committee recommended improvements to war powers decision-making designed to restore the proper roles of all three branches of government. Ms. Clutter and members of the War Powers Committee are available for comment.
The Constitution Project is a politically independent think tank established in 1997 to promote and defend constitutional safeguards. More information about the Constitution Project is available at https://constitutionproject.org/.
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'Right Thing to Do': FERC Delays Controversial LNG Export Terminal
"We are happy about the delay, but these projects don't ever need to be approved and neither does any other LNG facility," one frontline advocate said.
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Frontline communities along the Gulf Coast were granted a "temporary reprieve" last week when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission moved to pause its approval of the controversial Calcasieu Pass 2 liquefied natural gas export terminal while it conducts an assessment of its impact on air quality.
FERC approved Venture Global's CP2 in late June despite opposition from local residents who say the company's nearly identical Calcasieu Pass terminal has already wracked up a history of air quality violations and disturbed ecosystems and fishing grounds in Louisiana's Cameron Parish, harming health and livelihoods.
"This order reveals that FERC recognizes that CP2 LNG's environmental impacts are too great to pass through any real scrutiny" Megan Gibson, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), said in a statement on Monday.
"FERC's pause on construction may give us some temporary reprieve, but this project never should have been authorized in the first place."
FERC's decision follows a request for a rehearing of its June decision filed by frontline residents and community groups including For a Better Bayou and Fishermen Involved in Sustaining Our Heritage (FISH) as well as the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In their request, the groups and individuals pointed to errors the commission had made in its approval decision.
"With this order, it seems FERC is finally willing to acknowledge that it has not done enough to properly consider the cumulative harm on communities caused by building so many of these LNG export terminals so close together," Nathan Matthews, a Sierra Club senior attorney, said in a statement. "Prohibiting construction of CP2 LNG while FERC takes another look at the environmental impact of this massive, polluting facility is the right thing to do."
"Still," Matthews continued, "FERC must take concrete steps to properly evaluate the true scope of the dangers posed to communities from gas infrastructure moving forward and avoid making unwarranted approvals in the future."
FERC's decision comes over four months after the D.C. Circuit Court remanded the commission's approval of Commonwealth LNG, also in Louisiana, over concerns that it had not fully assessed the impacts of that project's air pollution emissions. Now, frontline advocates are urging FERC to do its due diligence as it weighs the environmental impacts of CP2.
"Through the lenses of optical gas imaging, we've seen massive plumes of toxic emissions, undeniable proof that these projects poison the air we breathe," James Hiatt, director of For a Better Bayou, said of LNG export facilities. "Modeling must use the latest data from the most local sources to fully capture the harm these facilities inflict on Cameron Parish. Anything less is a betrayal of our community. FERC must choose justice over profit and stop sacrificing people for polluters."
Gibson of SELC said that FERC had already repeated some of the errors in its CP2 approval in its new order.
"This continued failure to fulfill its regulatory duty is not just an oversight—it is a failure to protect vulnerable communities and our economy from the real potential harms of this massive export project," Gibson said.
FERC's decision comes as the fate of the LNG buildout itself hangs in the balance. The Biden administration's Department of Energy is currently rushing to complete its renewed assessment of whether or not LNG exports serve the public interest. Environmental and frontline groups have argued that they do not because of local pollution, the fact that they would raise domestic energy bills, and their contribution to the climate emergency. CP2 alone would spew 8,510,099 metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent per year, which is about the same as adding 1,850,000 new gas cars to the road.
While President-elect Donald Trump has promised to "drill, baby, drill" and is likely to disregard any Biden administration conclusions, a strong outgoing statement against LNG exports would help bolster legal challenges to Trump energy policy.
At the same time, Bill McKibben pointed out in a column on Tuesday that the administration's pause on LNG export approvals while it updates its public interest criteria has acted to slow the industry's expansion, and that FERC's reconsideration of CP2 could add to this delay.
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Ultimately, frontline Gulf Coast advocates want to see the LNG buildout halted entirely.
"I, along with the fishermen in Cameron, Louisiana, know firsthand how harmful LNG exports are, and see the total disregard they have for human life as they poison our families and seafood," said FISH founder Travis Dardar, an Indigenous fisherman in Cameron, Louisiana. "FERC's pause on construction may give us some temporary reprieve, but this project never should have been authorized in the first place. As far as anyone who believes in the fairytale of LNG being cleaner, we have paid with our communities and livelihoods. It's time to break these chains and turn away from this false solution."
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VIDEO: South Korean protesters call for President Yoon's arrest after martial law attempt.
South Koreans gather at Seoul's downtown Gwanghwamun in a protest to demand the resignation of President Yoon Suk Yeol after he abandoned a short-lived attempt at martial law that plunged… pic.twitter.com/6b2y2i8tUH
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) December 4, 2024
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