The Peruvian Government suddenly declared 80% of the Amazon to be available for gas and oil drilling, despite the lives of 482 Indigenous people that live in the Amazon Region. A group of Indigenous Peruvians in response to the gas and oil mining permissions, has gone to Court in Peru as The Ethnic Association for Peruvian Jungle Development, seeking a ban on gas and oil development. See, http://www.wri.org/stories/2007/10/protecting-peruvi an-amazon-and-its-people-risks-oil-and-gas-developme nt
Peru's Amazon rainforest is a Bio Gem of America's Natural Resources Defense Council, (NRDC). A Bio Gem is a wildlife place in the United States or in the World, named by this environmental law group, as a wild place endangered by destruction. Although the NRDC Bio Gem focus in Peru, Amazon South America concerns the strip logging forests of mahogany, See, http://www.savebiogems.org/amazon/,
The NRDC fought legally to stop the mining of Peru's oil resources. Preventing a hydroelectric plant in Patagonia Chile is also an NRDC Bio Gem Campaign to prevent river destruction, See, http://www.savebiogems.org/patagonia/
Ralph Nader essayed the destruction of South American eco-systems by American Gas and Oil Companies, in the book Pollution Current Controversies by James Haley (2001), raising the topic 'Should US environmental standards apply when multinational companies develop petroleum reserves of fragile ecosystems in Peru's Amazon Forest.'
Americans should be alarmed over warfare after reading about American Petroleum companies,' quasi-governmental takeover of the Amazon community. American companies police their own agreements; the police power anywhere is a local governmental power and function. For example, if acid rain corrodes oil and gas excavation pipes, the South American people that agreed to the excavation, must pay the damages. Nader observed that without any investigation of pipe corrosion, American oil companies insisted that acid rain caused pipe erosion, holding the people responsible for the environmental cleanup of toxic spill into their water sources, also taking over the judicial tribunal rights of the people living in the Amazon. People in Peru are at great risk when gas pipes break and oil burns, cancer, and other toxic chemical illness. Fires from pipes leaking are also destroying the Amazon environment contributing to water pollution.
Gases trapped in clouds emitted from gas and oil mining, are causes cited for acid rain. Acid rain is treated through American multinational agreements, however, like an act of God. Acts of God in the United States are not contractual. People are responsible for their own damages, mostly associated with the weather, such as hurricanes and tornadoes.
Environmental Standards in the United States depend on representative government such as the United States Clean Water Act applicable to the issue of toxic pollution discharge, providing It is the national policy, that the discharge of toxic pollutants in toxic amounts be prohibited; 33 U.S.C. Section 1251 (a)(3). http://taberlaw.wordpress.com/united-states-environm ental-law-at-a-glance/the-clean-water-act-federal-wa ter-pollution-control-act/.
Whether South Americans in Peru should adopt the environmental laws of the United States in their own country, depends on whether the United States can clearly support its own environmental laws and protect its own resources. Clean Water Act violations are litigated through the United States Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA). After reading for seven years about the dwindling monies, the Bush Administration, a pro oil and gas mining administration and family, allocated to support the Clean Water and Clear Air Acts. One of President Bush's speeches distinguishing mandatory and discretionary spending, gave me first a clue, then an answer. Our representative government environmental laws don't work because they are very under funded!
Spending for the Environmental Protection Agency is considered to be discretionary appropriation spending, through an act and not mandatory spending. Discretionary spending by the federal government is defined as non-entitlement spending, that is authorized through appropriations acts. http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/RL34424_20080326.pdf As of 2001 or eight years ago, the an EPA budget statement indicated their outlays were a deficit of 94 million dollars. See generally, http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy01/pdf/epa.pdf Since 1999, the United States Administration, sought large increases for defense spending. Op Cit at CRS-3
US standards also need to accommodate the United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights provisions, such as Article 1 Part 2. All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic co-operation, See http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm
Opposed to the idea of no international intervention, is the group UNESCO's World Heritage Cites. There are several Peru World Heritage cites, including two Peruvian national forests and Macchu Picchu. See, http://www.friendsofworldheritage.org/issues/traveli ng-responsibly/