Known informally as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the proposed free trade agreement among nations around the southern Pacific rim involves nine countries from Australia and New Zealand to Vietnam and Brunei to Chile and Peru, with Canada, Japan, and Mexico wanting to join in the negotiations before a final draft in July 2013.

The TPP is strongly supported by the Obama administration, but is criticized by unions and environmentalists, with Sen. Wyden (D-OR) objecting to the administration’s refusal to share information about controversial trade negotiations. Of direct interest to ‘fracktavists’ in Pennsylvania is the possible impact of the TPP on LNG exports.

As the Sierra Club’s Ilana Solomon commented in a recent article on TPP, “The TPP may allow for significantly increased exports of liquefied natural gas without the careful study or adequate protections necessary to safeguard the American public. This would mean an increase of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the dirty and violent process that dislodges gas deposits from shale rock formations. It would also likely cause an increase in natural gas and electricity prices, impacting consumers, manufacturers, workers, and increasing the use of dirty coal power.”