{"id":124691,"date":"2014-06-17T12:53:51","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T12:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=124691"},"modified":"2014-06-17T12:53:51","modified_gmt":"2014-06-17T12:53:51","slug":"u-s-eu-trade-pact-field-day-fossil-fuels-fracking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/sicence-technology\/u-s-eu-trade-pact-field-day-fossil-fuels-fracking\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S.-EU Trade Pact: A Field Day for Fossil Fuels and Fracking"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A transatlantic trade deal would eliminate restrictions on U.S. exports of fracked gas to the EU.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wenonah Hauter<\/em><\/p>\n

U.S. and EU negotiators recently began a\u00a0new round of negotiations<\/a>\u00a0on the Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement. Because the talks are happening behind closed doors, the public is left largely in the dark about the nature of the discussions over a deal also known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.<\/p>\n

So what, exactly, do we know?<\/p>\n

Officially, not much. But an\u00a0EU negotiation position \u201con raw materials and energy\u201d<\/a>\u00a0was leaked\u00a0to the Huffington Post<\/a>\u00a0in May. The text amounts to a wish list of demands from Big Oil and Gas that would lock in any of their investments in fossil fuels in general, and shale gas and fracking in particular.<\/p>\n

Article C of the document states that no restrictions should apply to the \u201cexports of energy goods\u201d between the transatlantic trade partners. Any request, for example, for an export license to ship natural gas from the United States to the EU would be approved \u201cautomatically.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means no questions asked, even if this arrangement could lead to environmental damage from widespread use of fracking, increased gas prices for U.S. consumers, increased import dependency, and other problems.<\/p>\n

This trade deal would lock in our mutual dependence on unsustainable fossil fuels at the expense of our climate. While it would bode well for the quarterly profits oil and gas companies earn, this arrangement wouldn\u2019t serve the public interest.<\/p>\n

Largely\u00a0unregulated energy commerce between the United States and EU would also be a frontal assault on the possibility for governments to impose a \u201cpublic service obligation.\u201d It could bar mandates for utility companies to deliver natural gas at certain prices to consumers, for example.<\/p>\n

Any such public service obligation should be \u201cclearly defined and of limited duration\u201d and no \u201cmore burdensome than necessary,\u201d according to the leaked draft. With such vague wording, lawyers will have a field day attacking any price regulation in the energy sector.<\/p>\n

This leak shows that civil society groups on both sides of the Atlantic have been right all along to be suspicious about what\u2019s being negotiated behind closed doors. The expression \u201cno news is good news\u201d clearly doesn\u2019t apply to the transatlantic free trade deal. The more we learn about the ongoing negotiations, the less we like it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Wenonah Hauter<\/a> is the executive director of Food & Water Watch and author of\u00a0Foodopoly: The Future of Food and Farming in America<\/i>.<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A transatlantic trade deal would eliminate restrictions on U.S. exports of fracked gas to the EU. Wenonah Hauter U.S. and EU negotiators recently began a\u00a0new round of negotiations\u00a0on the Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement. Because the talks are happening behind closed doors, the public is left largely in the dark about the nature of the discussions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-124691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news","7":"category-sicence-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}