CAFTA STILL ON BUSH AGENDA, ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS REMAIN
By Sarah Morgan

Congressional hearings on the Central American Free Trade Agreement are set to begin this week, and the US House panel has already given preliminary approval to CAFTA, but many are still questioning what the trade agreement will mean for environmental protections and the US economy.
"The big picture of what free trade agreements are about [is] granting corporations greater rights ... environmental regulations are obvious targets," said Lesley Ramsey, director of the Texas Fair Trade Coalition. "Corporations could be free to spew their smoke and dump their waste without any penalties," she said.
CAFTA is a trade agreement between the United States, five Central American countries, and the Dominican Republic, designed to eliminate barriers to trade. Such "barriers" could include government regulations that indirectly affect trade, such as zoning restrictions, prevailing wage laws, and environmental regulations. Also, because CAFTA is an international treaty, once passed, the rules it creates become law superceding related trade law in the signatory countries, according to the TFTC.
The TFTC holds that if CAFTA is passed, the Prevailing Wage Law in Texas could be overturned, meaning foreign corporations that want to bid on state contracts but don't want to pay the state's prevailing wages could pay workers less. Similarly, under CAFTA, job outsourcing could become more common, as smaller pay requirements in Central American countries could lure companies to move jobs away from the US.
Also, the coalition says that Texas environmental protections could be challenged by foreign corporations and overturned as illegal barriers to free trade. Under CAFTA, many worry that foreign corporations could challenge environmental regulations, claiming they make business costs too high.
"What CAFTA does is, it doesn't overturn environmental regulations but it creates a mechanism whereby foreign corporations can challenge environmental regulations."
In 2002, for example, the president of Costa Rica announced a moratorium on oil exploration and open-pit mining. Harken Energy, a Texas-based oil company had plans to drill offshore there, but they failed an environmental impact review, according to the Sierra Club. Harken then demanded $12 million in "damages," but Costa Rica refused to comply. Had CAFTA been in force, Ramsey said, Harken could have bypassed the Costa Rican courts and gone straight to an outside trade tribunal in an effort to obtain damages. Under the free trade agreement, a tribunal hearing would have no public access and no appeals process.
"While CAFTA's investor rights provisions, similar to NAFTA's, are intended primarily to protect US capital, they can also boomerang against our own environmental and public health laws," the Sierra Club says in a CAFTA fact sheet.
According to the Sierra Club, under NAFTA more than twenty "investor-state" claims have been filed against the US, Canada, and Mexico. These are situations in which a corporation has sued for damages because business was in some way hampered by existing environmental regulations.
But groups such as the National Association of Manufacturers support CAFTA. NAM is estimating that the agreement will result in an additional $1 billion in exports of US manufactured goods per year. Others, including Los Angeles Times columnist James Flanigan, hold that CAFTA will give the Latin American countries the chance to "modernize their economies." In a May 29 article in the Times, Flanigan also said CAFTA serves as a "tactical countermeasure to China's exporting excesses."
The Bush administration is pushing for a vote on CAFTA by the July 4 recess, according to the TFTC. In Texas alone, six congressional representatives are still undecided on CAFTA, four of which are a part of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which, Ramsey said, is a politically influential group on the CAFTA issue.

AIRPORT EXPANSION PROPOSED FOR AIR RICE NEAR KATY PRAIRIE
by Sarah Morgan

An airport expansion project has been proposed for the Katy Prairie, home to the largest flock of wintering migratory birds in the US.
The Air Rice airport is hoping to expand from a private airfield to a business airport, according to the Houston Chronicle. The current airport sits on 1,980 acres of farmland near Brookshire, an area larger than Hobby Airport, and residents and environmentalists are protesting the plans, saying the expansion would jeopardize wildlife and devalue property. Other concerns include noise pollution and increased flooding. The Katy Prairie is an important part of regional flood management. The waters from this area drain into urban developments.
The Air Rice airport's proposed expansion project includes a ten-year plan for about 400,000 takeoffs and landings a year.
City of Houston studies have shown the bird population to be as heavy as 3,000 geese per hour in an area just four miles from the designated construction site of the previously proposed West Side Airport. For that project, the US Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that there would have been about fifty bird/airplane collisions per month if the airport had been approved. The Air Rice project is approximately 5,000 feet from where the West Side Airport would have been.
Construction for the Air Rice airport could begin at the corner of Highway 90 and F.M. 2855, an area about three miles from Katy High School, Katy Elementary School. The plans include expanding the current 3,600-foot runway to a 7,000-foot runway over a five-year period. Two single-engine planes are currently based at the airport, but the expansion calls for a total of 213 planes of various sizes to be based at Air Rice, according to the group Stop Katy Airport.
For more information about the project, visit http://www.stopkatyairport.com.

CALL FOR 2005 MAYOR'S PROUD PARTNER AWARD ENTRIES

Keep Houston Beautiful is calling for nominations for the 2005 Mayor's Proud Partner Awards. Any program, project or individual effort completed during the last year to create a cleaner, more beautiful environment is eligible for consideration. Those interested in nominating a project for consideration must complete a nomination form by July 08. Nomination forms can be downloaded at http://www.houstonbeautiful.org/documents/FinalProudPartner_001.pdf.

HOUSTON GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY: FIFTH ANNUAL SALTWATER FISHING TOURNAMENT

The Houston Geological Society is holding its fifth annual saltwater fishing tournament all day June 25. The registration fee is $60 per contestant and includes the launch fee, a fishing cap, fish fry meal after weigh in, refreshments, trophies, and door prizes. The tournament will be at the Teakwood Marina Village of Tiki Island Galveston, Texas. For more information or to register, contact Bobby Perez at (281) 787-2106 or e-mail r_perez@seismicventures.com.

HOUSTON SIERRA CLUB BICYCLE RIDE: TOUR THE HISTORIC HEIGHTS

The Houston Sierra Club is having a 15-20 mile bike tour of the Heights on June 26 beginning at 8:30 am. Bicyclists will tour the Heights and then go on the White Oak Bayou bicycle trail. After a ride through rural Garden Oaks, cyclists will come back to the Heights for lunch at the 11th Street Cafe. Houston Sierra Club requires that all riders, children and adults, wear bicycle helmets. Bring water, sun screen, bicycle helmet, and your own bicycle. Meet at Stude Park off of I-10 (at Michaux and Usener). For more information, contact John Berlinghoff at (713) 644-8228 or johnb@hal-pc.org.

TOYOTA ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVITIES GRANT PROGRAM

Toyota Motor Corporation is accepting applications for the FY2005 Toyota Environmental Activities Grant, a program designed to support environmental revitalization and conservation activities, for the purpose of sustainable development.
The program was established in commemoration of Toyota's receipt of the Global 500 Award in 1999 from the United Nations Environment Program and has been implemented every year since FY2000 as part of the company's environmental philanthropy.
The program provides general grants to support practical projects in the areas of environmental education and experience-based learning, or creating/providing the opportunities for such activities, as well as projects aimed at the localization of experiment-based environmental technology at the community level. Projects are to be conducted by NPOs and other nonprofit private groups, with no restriction regarding implementation sites or limit on the grant amount per project. The deadline to apply is July 8.
For application guidelines and an overview of previous grants, visit http://fconline.fdncenter.org/pnd/2631/toyota.

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