Issue 1, January 2003

1. Federal Court Orders Bush Administration to Give the Public Access to Trade Negotiating Documents

2. City of Oakland, Calif., Joins Global Warming Lawsuit In Unanimous City Council Vote

3. Under Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC Rules May Increase Environmental Disclosure

Federal Court Orders Bush Administration to Give the Public Access to Trade Negotiating Documents

In a groundbreaking ruling Dec. 19, a U.S. District Court ordered the Bush Administration to give the public access to U.S. trade negotiating proposals for the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement. The court ruled that the Freedom of Information Act applies to the documents and ordered the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to reveal them by Jan. 17.

The decision sets a legal precedent for a more transparent and democratic process that has been sought by public interest and environmental organizations for years. The court's order was the result of a lawsuit filed in November 2001 by Earthjustice on behalf of Friends of the Earth, the Center for International Environmental Law and Public Citizen.

"This decision sends a strong message to the Bush administration that trade negotiations and proceedings must not stay behind closed doors,” said David Waskow, trade policy coordinator for Friends of the Earth. “It's now up to the administration to take the issue of transparency seriously and make the rhetoric of public participation a reality."

View the decision online: http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/01-2350.pdf. For more information, contact David Waskow at (202) 783-7400 Ext. 108 or dwaskow@foe.org.

City of Oakland, Calif., Joins Global Warming Lawsuit in Unanimous City Council Vote

In a unanimous vote by the city council in closed session Dec. 17, the city of Oakland, Calif., announced it had approved a motion to join a lawsuit brought by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and the city of Boulder, Colo., on behalf of their members and citizens against two U.S. government agencies – the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Charged with illegally funding fossil fuel projects, Ex-Im and OPIC are taxpayer-funded agencies that provide financing and loans to U.S. corporations for overseas projects that commercial banks deem too risky.

The unprecedented lawsuit alleges that OPIC and Ex-Im illegally provided over $32 billion in financing and insurance for oil fields, pipelines and coal-fired power plants over the past 10 years without assessing their contribution to global warming or their impact on the U.S. environment, as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

For more information, go to: www.climatelawsuit.org or contact Jon Sohn at (202) 783-7400 x 231.

Under Sarbanes-Oxley, SEC Rules May Increase Environmental Disclosure

As part of the many rules proposed under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Securities and Exchange Commission has introduced a proposal – Disclosure in Management's Discussion and Analysis About Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements, Contractual Obligations and Contingent Liabilities and Commitments – that should increase companies' disclosure of environmental liabilities.

Currently, companies only report environmental liabilities if the liability is financially significant on the site or incident level. For example, a company could be a sole responsible party at 30 Superfund toxic waste sites but not report anything to its shareholders, because individually each site is not significant compared with the company's net assets. The proposed rule would require companies to aggregate contingent liabilities – possible financial obligations that arise from past events and whose existence will be confirmed only by the occurrence of uncertain future events. This would mean the same company would have to add up the potential clean-up costs for all 30 sites and disclose these liabilities to investors if the total amount was significant.

For more information, contact Michelle Chan-Fishel at (510) 848-1155 x 315 or mchan@foe.org.