customs package that would allow the
controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement to go to a
straight up-and-down vote in the US Congress failed to pass the House on
Friday.
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Nancy Pelosi - lectures Congress
about climate change. |
Before the vote, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
lectured her colleagues on the importance of climate change and how it relates
to the trade agreement.
“You cannot separate commerce and environment,” Pelosi said
on the House floor before the vote.
Environmental groups had already opposed the TPP, because
under the agreement, corporations will likely be able to sue governments that
interfere with their business — even if the interference comes from enforcement
of carbon reduction goals and passing environmental legislation.
But earlier this
week, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) doubled down on
the environmental component of the TPP, introducing an amendment to the customs
package that would “ensure that trade agreements do not require changes to U.S.
law or obligate the United States with respect to global warming or climate
change.”
We’ll start in DC, where Pope Francis will address US
lawmakers on September 24 and warn what could be a hostile audience they need
to open their eyes to global warming.