For Immediate Release:
July 29, 2002

Contact:
Zack Roth, 202-675-627

Sierra Club Expresses Disappointment as House Approves Fast Track,
Threatening Environmental Protections

Washington, DC: The Sierra Club expressed strong disappointment today after
the House of Representatives narrowly approved dangerous trade legislation.
By a razor-thin margin of 215-212, and only after a rare lobbying visit to
Capitol Hill by President Bush, the House passed the fast track bill, which
will prevent Congress from fixing future trade deals, even when they
threaten the environment.

"Now more than ever, Americans want Congress to hold corporations
accountable, not give them more breaks," said Carl Pope, Executive Director
of the Sierra Club.  "The House's capitulation to powerful business
interests could jeopardize many of the environmental protections Americans
take for granted."

Fast track will allow the Bush administration to extend NAFTA across the
western hemisphere.  Provisions in NAFTA allow foreign corporations to sue
the U.S. government whenever they feel that our environmental protections
affect their profits.  Already, a Canadian chemical company has used NAFTA
to sue the US government for $1 billion, jeopardizing a vital California
clean water law.  Extending NAFTA would greatly increse the number of these
claims, and threaten crucial environmental and public health laws.

"Here in California, we fought hard to keep our drinking water safe from
dangerous toxic chemicals.  But that progress could be undone by NAFTA's
corporate-friendly provisions," continued Pope.  "Now thanks to the House
vote, many more environmental protections across the country could soon be
under attack."

Rejecting fast track would not have limited our ability to enter
international trade agreements.  It simply would have allowed Congress to
weigh in on those agreements, to prevent them from running roughshod over
the environment.  That safeguard no longer exists.

"We can have a trade policy that is clean, green, and fair, but not by
handcuffing our elected representatives," added Pope.  "The Bush
administration now must take care not to put international trade on a
collision course with the need to protect our environment."

###


Erin Jordahl
Director, Iowa Chapter Sierra Club
3839 Merle Hay Road, Suite 280
Des Moines, IA 50310
515-277-8868
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]