When it was created five years ago as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the tri-national Commission for Environmental Cooperation was given the power to issue non-binding rulings on complaints filed by citizens’ groups against Canada, Mexico and the United States. Though it has received 20 such complaints, however, the CEC has ruled on only one—a complaint that Mexican officials disregarded their country’s environmental laws in allowing the world’s largest cruise ship pier to be built at Cozumel. That ruling, moreover, satisfied none of the parties involved. Since then, the CEC’s governing council has recommended changing the complaints process. And now an official CEC advisory committee, having gathered public comment on the proposed revisions, is preparing to weigh in on... [Log in to read more]