Anthony Swift, in his latest post for the Natural Resources Defense Council staff blog, says that even though Terry's appalling new bill is so politically theatrical that it has almost no chance of becoming law, it still sets a dangerous precedent — the suspension of laws domestic firms must obey, for the exclusive benefit of a non-US corporation.
AKSARBENT wonders whether this is why Rep. Terry wears an U.S. flag pin on his lapel. Is it his idea of an ironic, in-your-face joke to his constituents, given his reckless and gross betrayal of their — and the U.S.'s —interests?
Proponents of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline in the House are pushing forward a measure that would exempt the Canadian pipeline company TransCanada from legal requirements placed on domestic pipeline operators. H.R. 3, or the Northern Route Approval Act, proposed by Representative Terry, is far more extreme than any previous pro-Keystone XL measure considered in the Congress to date. Terry’s bill would thwart a decades old bipartisan process for considering international pipeline applications - a process which the American public is heavily invested after submitting over a million comments detailing the tar sands project's significant environmental impacts. Moreover, in a series of unprecedented provisions, Terry’s bill would exempt the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline from the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), the Endangered Species Act (ESA), permitting requirements for federal rights of way, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. H.R. 3 isn’t a bill to approve Keystone XL. It’s a bill for giving a foreign company special treatment by exempting it from the nation’s most cherished laws protecting public health, welfare and the environment.
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