But Public Citizen Still Fights for Consumers

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But Public Citizen Still Fights for Consumers

A lot has changed since 1971 ... n that year ... the Watergate was still just a little-known hotel in Washington ... people drove sta- tion wagons, not SUVs ... passengers could smoke on airplanes ... nuclear Ipower was flourishing ... and a first-class stamp cost 6 cents. Public Citizen has changed, too. From our founding in 1971 by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, we have grown into a potent countervailing force to the might of Corporate America. Today, we are larger and stronger than ever. But what hasn’t changed are the traits that have served us well: independence, per- sistence, vigilance. We’ve been the eyes and ears — and sometimes the teeth — of consumers through the administrations of six presidents and through 15 Congresses. We were born in an era of activism, during a But Public Citizen period when the Con- gress was creating Still Fights for important new agencies — the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Consumers Safety and Health Administration, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — to mitigate the health and safety risks posed by our industrial society. Since that time, we’ve withstood a withering corporate backlash against consumer protection. But we have been uncompromising in our fight for safer products, for government and corporate accountability, for clean elections, for a strong and vibrant civil justice system, and for clean and safe energy. We have evolved with the times, keeping our core values while moving into new arenas, such as globalization and electricity deregulation now devastating California consumers. Public Citizen has won many battles for consumers. We have remained independent by refusing to accept money from corporations or the government, giving us the freedom to name names. We have been persistent, because our battles sometimes stretch across long years. We have been vigilant, because reforms won today can be undone tomorrow. In the following pages, we look back at our history and accomplishments, and offer an in-depth look at some major issues on which we work. Special Anniversary Issue Public Citizen News 5.

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Public Citizen Copyright © 2016 by Public Citizen Foundation All Rights Reserved
Public Citizen Copyright © 2016 by Public Citizen Foundation All rights reserved. Public Citizen Foundation 1600 20th St. NW Washington, D.C. 20009 www.citizen.org ISBN: 978-1-58231-099-2 Doyle Printing, 2016 Printed in the United States of America PUBLIC CITIZEN THE SENTINEL OF DEMOCRACY CONTENTS Preface: The Biggest Get ...................................................................7 Introduction ....................................................................................11 1 Nader’s Raiders for the Lost Democracy....................................... 15 2 Tools for Attack on All Fronts.......................................................29 3 Creating a Healthy Democracy .....................................................43 4 Seeking Justice, Setting Precedents ..............................................61 5 The Race for Auto Safety ..............................................................89 6 Money and Politics: Making Government Accountable ..............113 7 Citizen Safeguards Under Siege: Regulatory Backlash ................155 8 The Phony “Lawsuit Crisis” .........................................................173 9 Saving Your Energy .................................................................... 197 10 Going Global ...............................................................................231 11 The Fifth Branch of Government................................................ 261 Appendix ......................................................................................271 Acknowledgments ........................................................................289
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Ralph Nader, Founder 215 Pennsylvania Ave SE
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Private Fuel Storage: a Public Hazard
Buyers Up · Congress Watch · Critical Mass · Global Trade Watch · Health Research Group · Litigation Group Joan Claybrook, President Private Fuel Storage: A Public Hazard Private Fuel Storage (PFS) is a consortium of eight commercial nuclear utility companies that have come together with the goal of opening a “temporary” high-level nuclear waste storage facility on the reservation of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians in Skull Valley, Utah, about 45 miles west of Salt Lake City. PFS is led by Xcel Energy; the other seven utilities are: · Southern Nuclear Company · Indiana-Michigan Power Co. (American · Genoa FuelTech Electric Power) · Southern California Edison · Florida Power and Light · Entergy · FirstEnergy Many of the nation’s 103 commercial nuclear reactors are running out of space on site to store “spent” nuclear fuel, which is extremely radioactive, and are looking for storage space to tide them over until the expected opening of the controversial Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada sometime after 2010. The proposed Private Fuel Storage facility would house up to 4,000 above-ground dry storage casks, containing a total of 44,000 tons of highly-radioactive nuclear waste. Problems with PFS: v The proposed site is located directly underneath the U.S. Air Force flight path from Hill Air Force Base to the Utah Test and Training Range. On March 10, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety Licensing Board ruled that “PFS has not provided reasonable assurance that F-16 aircraft crash accidents do not pose a significant threat to the facility.”1 An F-16 is a single-engine aircraft with little recourse in the case of engine problems.
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NAFTA Chapter 11 Investor-State Cases 1994-2005
NAFTA’S THREAT TO SOVEREIGNTY AND DEMOCRACY: The Record of NAFTA Chapter 11 Investor-State Cases 1994-2005 Lessons for the Central America Free Trade Agreement February 2005 © 2005 by Public Citizens Global Trade Watch. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or by information exchange and retrieval systems, without written permission from the authors. Public Citizen Publication Number: E9014 Public Citizen is a nonprofit membership organization in Washington, D.C., dedicated to advancing consumer rights through lobbying, litigation, research, publications and information services. Since its founding by Ralph Nader in 1971, Public Citizen has fought for consumer rights in the marketplace, for safe and secure health care, for fair trade, for clean and safe energy sources, and for corporate and government accountability. Visit our web page at http://www.citizen.org. Acknowledgments: This report was written by Mary Bottari and Lori Wallach. Additional writing and invaluable research assistance was provided by Runako Kumbula, David Waskow (Friends of the Earth), Josh Kolsky, Joshua Chanin, and Heather Goss. Other assistance was provided by Juan Marchini, Carlos La Hoz, Todd Tucker, Libby Sinback, Paul Levy, Alyssa Prorok, Susan Ellsworth, John Gibler, David Edeli, Angela Bradbery, Timi Gerson, Peter Lurie, Patricial Lovera, Tony Corbo and Sara Johnson. Special thanks to Chris Slevin at Public Citizen, Matthew Porterfield and Robert Stumberg at Georgetown University, Marcos Orellana at Center for International Environmental Law, Luke Peterson from the International Institute of Sustainable Development, and Martin Wagner at Earthjustice.
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Profitably Inventing New Diseases
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The Corporate Campaign Against Consumer Class Actions
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Why Preemption Proponents Are Wrong
Posted with permission of TRIAL (March 2007) TRIAL • Fighting preemption • March 2007 • Volume 43, Issue 3 Copyright American Association for Justice, formerly Association of Trial Lawyers of America. Why preemption proponents are wrong Corporate defendants’ claim that the effect of state tort actions is equivalent to state positive law has no merit. The reality is that consumer protection can be guaranteed only when tort remedies work in tandem with federal regulation. BRIAN WOLFMAN he basic idea of federal preemp- because, for instance, these products seeking damages on the ground that the tion is easily stated: It is a con- have been approved for marketing by a plaintiff’s injuries were caused by the Tstitutionally mandated principle federal agency harms both the injured device’s defective design or inadequate that demands that federal law trumps people and society generally. labeling is also preempted. state law when the two confl ict or in In other words, is the effect of posi- the rare instances when a federal law is An unsound theory tive law (in this case, a state’s positive so comprehensive that there’s no role law requirement that a product not be The theoretical basis that defendants left for state law to fi ll. But in practice, marketed) the same as a jury’s damag- offer for preemption of state tort law courts have often had diffi culty applying es verdict (in this case, a state’s award is not fi rmly established in preemption the principle. of damages based on a design defect)? doctrine. I don’t mean the detailed com- For plaintiff lawyers, preemption is This is an important question because an ever-present worry.
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Supreme Court of the United States
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Program Perspectives a Guide to League Issues 2016-2018 League of Women Voters of Texas
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