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Public Citizen's Week on Tap

Flickr photo by fragglerawker_03

What’s up this week at Public Citizen? We’re keeping busy to make sure that your voices are being heard in the halls of power.

Today, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg will speak at Public Citizen about drugs and safety. Follow @citizenangela on Twitter for her live-tweeting of the event, or check back here on Citizen Vox for our take on the event.

Also this week, folks down in Public Citizen’s Texas office will send a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives urging members from the Lone Star State to vote against a bill that would reduce the review of a proposed oil pipeline running through the Ogallala Aquifer in Texas. The pipeline would transport the dirtiest oil in the world through America’s largest freshwater aquifer, risking a major oil spill and causing dangerous pollutants to be released into the air during the refining process.

Public Citizen will also stand up for an energy activist this week who was convicted in March of making a false statement and violating a federal onshore oil and gas lease act. Now he could face up to 10 years in jail, as well as $750,000 in fines. Public Citizen will vouch for him, saying that protecting the environment is not a crime, and will highlight the absurdity of this activist being charged when real environmental and safety predators — like Massey Energy and BP — walk away from their disasters unharmed.

And stay tuned for later in the week, when Public Citizen petitions the FDA to require manufacturers of a drug to warn about a rare, but serious adverse effect that could leave patients with detached retinas and impaired vision.

Check back. We’re on the go, with you, the American consumers, on our minds and agendas.