As you know, President Trump signed Executive Orders moving forward both the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline, despite their massive unpopularity and the danger they present to clean water (these two items, of course, being intimately related). Hence Amnesty International helps you tell Mr. Trump to withdraw his order and guarantee the right to peaceful protest and redress of grievances in re Standing Rock, and the Sierra Club helps you tell Mr. Trump to reverse orders on both Dakota Access and Keystone, and put people, clean water, and renewable energy first. He won't listen, but at least he'll be on record as having ignored the will of the people. Many issues are at stake here -- clean water, pipeline safety, wildlife habitats, religious freedom -- but these pipelines also won't get done in a day: the Keystone Order, for example, restarts the process, giving the State Department 60 days to review the matter. We know what they'll say, but it ain't over.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has formally withdrawn the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific "Partnership" negotiations; I did wonder how he was going to flip-flop on this matter, but I'm glad he didn't. Still, as with the pipeline troubles above, the Executive Order isn't the end of it -- Mr. Trump may well negotiate (or renegotiate) trade deals that are even worse than the multitudinous "free" trade deals that have plagued our nation over the years. So the Sierra Club helps you tell your Congressfolk to negotiate trade deals that put people above polluters. The road to hell is paved with the stories of multinational corporations who spew filth into the people's air and water -- and then sue their governments for even having clean air and clean water laws in the first place, expecting a tribute (or a bailout, take your pick) for the trouble they caused! Mr. Trump's inclinations don't give me hope, but then he doesn't get all the say around here.
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