UPDATE 1-Groups urge U.S. Congress to reject TPP over environmental concerns

(Adds comment from the United States Trade Representative)
By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON, June 6 (Reuters) - More than 450 groups on
Monday called on Congress to reject the Trans-Pacific
Partnership if it comes up for a vote this fall, saying the
trade deal would allow fossil fuel companies to contest U.S.
environmental rules in extrajudicial tribunals.
The groups, most of them environmental organizations, warned
that companies could challenge U.S. environmental standards in
tribunals outside the domestic legal system under provisions of
the 12-nation TPP and the proposed Transatlantic Trade and
Investment Partnership (TTIP) with Europe.
Congress is expected to vote on the TPP after the Nov. 8
election during a lame-duck session. President Barack Obama
wants the agreement ratified before he leaves office on Jan. 20,
but opposition to the deal has grown during this year's
presidential campaign.
"We strongly urge you to eliminate this threat to U.S.
climate progress by committing to vote no on the TPP and asking
the U.S. Trade Representative to remove from TTIP any provision
that empowers corporations to challenge government policies in
extrajudicial tribunals," the groups wrote in the letter to
every member of Congress.
Obama's political ally and Democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton has said she wants to renegotiate the TPP to
include stronger rules on currency manipulation.
Voter anxiety over the impact of trade deals on jobs and the
environment has helped power the campaigns of Donald Trump, the
likely Republican nominee, and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who
is running against Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
The letter says approving the deals would enable fossil fuel
companies to use "investor-state dispute settlements" to demand
compensation for environmental rules through cases decided by
lawyers outside the U.S. judicial system.
The groups noted that in January, Canadian energy company
TransCanada TRP.TO asked for a private tribunal through the
North American Free Trade Agreement to seek compensation
exceeding $15 billion, after Obama last year rejected a permit
for its Keystone pipeline, citing global warming concerns.
"The TPP and TTIP would more than double the number of
fossil fuel corporations that could follow TransCanada's example
and challenge U.S. policies in private tribunals," the letter
said.
A spokesman for the United States Trade Representative said
on Monday that the United States has never lost an ISDS case
because "we have continued to raise standards through each
agreement."
The spokesman said the TPP has the strongest environmental
safeguards of any trade agreement and upgrades NAFTA with "full
enforceable environmental obligations."
Ilana Solomon, director of the Sierra Club's trade program,
said skepticism around trade deals in the U.S. election creates
an opportunity for Congress to reject the TPP.
"There is so much momentum now to end the TPP and other
trade agreements," she told Reuters. "This is an area where
there is bipartisan agreement... that these deals harm workers,
communities and our environment."