[Corporations] Americas Program | U.S. Owes It to Neighbors to Defend TRI

[IRC]

New at IRC Americas Program

“A New World of Citizen Action, Analysis, and Policy Options”
http://americas.irc-online.org/


Introducing the latest policy analysis from IRC Americas Program

Testimony: United States Owes It to Neighbors to Defend Toxics Release
Inventory
By Talli Nauman

The Americas Program of the Silver City, New Mexico-based non-profit
International Relations Center is taking this opportunity to comment on
the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed rules for reduction of
the burden for reporting industrial chemical discharges for inclusion
in the Toxics Release Inventory. We oppose the federal initiative,
which would undercut the power of the TRI, one of the world's most
useful tools for guaranteeing corporate disclosure, accountability, and
transparency regarding hazardous wastes. The proposal would loosen
industry's reporting requirements and permit polluters to emit 10 times
more than now without informing the public. 

The United States, as a signatory to the North American Free Trade
Agreement and the North American Agreement on Environmental
Cooperation, is bound to improve its environmental standards and
harmonize them with the other signatory parties, Canada and Mexico.
Relieving production facilities of their obligations to report at
current threshold levels would fly in the face of the North American
treaty responsibility, violating international law, and setting a bad
precedent for reciprocal treatment between partner countries. 

Talli Nauman is the IRC Americas Program Associate and editor at large
(online at americas.irc-online.org.)

See new IRC commentary online at: 
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/3028

With printer-friendly pdf version at: 
http://americas.irc-online.org/pdf/commentary/0601ToxicRelease.pdf

For More Information
To sign a TRI Letter to Congress, contact Clay Northouse, at OMB Watch
in Washington, DC, (202) 234-8494 or join IRC and more than 150 other
organizations and sign the letter on Internet at
http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3228 

Submit comments to the EPA using the new federal government portal
http://www.regulations.gov and the keywords “toxics release inventory”
or using the OMB Watch web tool at http://ombwatch.org/protecttri (The
public comment period closes on Friday, January 13th.) 

For full background information click on "EPA Cutbacks on Toxics
Information Draw Nationwide Criticism" at the Society of Environmental
Journalists First Amendment Task Force WatchDog TipSheet site
http://www.sej.org/foia/index7.htm 

For media inquiries Siri Khalsa, media at irc-online.org, 505-388-0208 
 
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International Relations Center (IRC)
http://www.irc-online.org/
Siri D. Khalsa 
Outreach Coordinator 
Email: communications at irc-online.org 
PO Box 2178 
Silver City, NM 88062

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