Forests Newsroom

The corporate cabal behind a new trade agreement including Cargill, Pfizer, Nike and WalMart, has done an exceptional job of maintaining an almost total lack of transparency as they literally design the future we will all inhabit.

An imperiled orangutan was rescued from a small patch of the Tripa peat swamp rainforest in Sumatra last month, in an effort to save this large adult male from starvation. But experts fear he could be among the last of his kind in what was once prime habitat for these graceful, shy great apes.

The EPA's analysis looked at the loss of rainforest and the draining of peatlands as the big net loss for palm-oil based biodiesel, which keeps the fuel from being classed as renewable under the RFS. However one group - the Rainforest Action Network - claims that EPA hasn't gone far enough. Scientific and environmental groups summarized their comments to EPA's proposed finding and while they agreed with EPA's conclusion, they argue that EPA's analysis actually underestimates the greenhouse gas emissions of palm oil.

A consortium of environmental groups said that, while they agreed with the findings, the EPA underestimated the emissions levels. They said they believe palm oil has serious environmental consequences.

"The emissions of palm oil based biofuels substantially exceed the emissions from conventional petroleum diesel," Jeremy Martin, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement.