Stop the Law of the Sea Treaty!
October 30th, 2007 by Brendan SteinhauserThanks to our friends over at Competitive Enterprise Institute for sending along some great arguments against the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). I know many of you are actively calling your senators about this, so please be sure to read the points below and keep the phone calls going!
The United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty would:
- Threaten
U. S. sovereignty. Once theU.S. became a party to the treaty, any number of issues could be adjudicated by a LOST tribunal. Jurisdiction over anything that affects the oceans directly or indirectly could be asserted. Tribunal decisions cannot be appealed and could be enforced inU.S. federal courts. - Facilitate United Nations global governance. The treaty’s reach extends far beyond international issues and disagreements into nations’ internal policies on a wide array of issues.
- Give the United Nations international taxing authority. It would give the new seabed authority power to tax American resource extraction companies that work in international waters.
- Accomplish back door implementation of the
Kyoto Protocol. A claim before a LOST tribunal that industrial carbon dioxide emissions are leading to increasing acidification of the oceans and thereby threatening the world’s marine ecological resources would likely prevail.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Not only would the aforementioned happen, but just imagine what would happen to the American fishing industry if every time that a fleet wanted to go into the deeper waters (many are now international), would these fisherman have to go before the United Nations to seek approval?
While the fishing industry may not seem like its that vital of a part of the United States economy, just imagine how it would effect things in a state like Maine.
Olympia Snowe had a great press release back in May that outlines some great questions/statements that need to be brought to the floor of the Senate when this is debated: http://snowe.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.WeeklyUpdates&ContentRecord_id=67655957-802a-23ad-47d1-ec8d445bb8bf&Region_id=&Issue_id=
I have a feeling that this could have some backlash in states like Massachusetts where it can be assumed that both Kerry and Kennedy will support this, even though a portion of their states revenue comes from the sale of fish… fish that are often times caught in international deep waters.
I guess this is truly the “Perfect Storm”
April 4th, 2008 at 3:37 am
Josjua…
It would be great help if I could get some clarity on the real issues…