The US is currently under attack, not by the Canadian Army, or the Mounties, or even a band of marauding Sasquatches, nut by a bevy of loon-paid lawyers the employ of TransCanada, the company, whose domestic operations Canadians are blocking.
TransCanada, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, announced Wednesday it is filing a claim under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saying that the project’s permit denial was “arbitrary and unjustified.” TransCanada is seeking $15 billion in costs and damages due to the denial, and has also filed a separate lawsuit against the U.S. in federal court.
Under NAFTA, companies can sue governments that put investments at risk through regulation. If it proceeds, the case will go in front of an international tribunal. (A U.S. company sued Montreal in 2013 over a fracking ban, using the same rationale). The tribunal cannot overturn the permit denial, but it can force payment of damages.
A NAFTA challenge had been previously identified as a potential legal recourse for the company.
In the notice to submit a claim for arbitration, TransCanada notes that two previous pipelines, carrying oil from the same tar sands region across the U.S. border, were both approved. This, TransCanada claims, suggests that the denial was political in nature, which is prohibited under NAFTA.
“Environmental activists … turned opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline into a litmus test for politicians—including U.S. President Barack Obama — to prove their environmental credentials. The activists’ strategy succeeded,” TransCanada states in its filings. “Stated simply, the delay and the ultimate decision to deny the permit were politically-driven, directly contrary to the findings of the Administration’s own studies, and not based on the merits of Keystone’s application. The Administration’s actions violated U.S. obligations under the North American Free Trade Agreement (“NAFTA”).”
The company even headed the notice with a quote from White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest: “I would venture to say that there’s probably no infrastructure project in the history of the United States that’s been as politicized as this one.” …
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I sincerely hope that TransCanada’s suit fails. However, this is the best thing that could have happened. It shows us how these trade agreements compromise our national sovereignty. It demonstrates the need to stop the TPP.
10 Responses to “US Under Attack from Canada”
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OMG! Canada – "US Under Attack from Canada"
Article:
TransCanada Sues the U.S. for $15B for Rejecting Keystone XL. Will This Be the New Normal Under TPP?
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/1/7/transcanada_sues_the_us_for_15b
Full Video: THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2016
http://www.democracynow.org/
OR
http://publish.dvlabs.com/democracynow/360/dn2016-0107.mp4
Be sure to listen to Lori Wallch of Public Citizen explanation at 17.32 in the video.
All the more reason to write to your congresscritters and tell them to say "NO" to TPP! Or watch your emails on TPP from various organizations and sign them. We must not allow TPP to pass! NO to TPP!
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Thanks for thr links!
That's quite a picture. I can almost smell the tar fumes coming right off the screen.
TPP is the acronym (or really, just the initials) for "Trans Pacific Partnership." The countries putting it together are all around the Pacific Rim – of course, Canada, the US, and Mexico also have an Atlantic exposure. Not to be outdone, the EU is trying to put together the TTIP – I'm not sure exactly what it stands for but it can't be a coincidence that the initials are so similar to TPP – it could make you think you have already signed against both if you have only signed against one. Be alert for this one also. I believe there is also a third travesty in the making – would it be TISA? Same song, different verse, a little bit louder and a little bit worse.
TC is right that, although awful, this lawsuit is a good thing to have happened. The whole concept of a CORPORATION in one country having standing to seu A DIFFERENT COUNTY is so foreign to our experince that it is good to get an idea of what that looks like, so we can see how awful it does in fact look. Not that this is the worst possible way it can look. Wasn't there some talk about Phillip Morris suing some African country where kids start smoking as young as three for trying to establish programs to protect children from tobaco? Nestle with their baby formula would be sure to get on to that wagon also.
So, even if you don't care much about climate change or the environment (I am sure that everyone here does, but there are people who don't, and we probably all know some), rest assured that there is some area in which the TPP and its siblings are going to hurt you if they go onto effect. Just say no.
I don't think those other pipelines were above such a major aquifer though…a good example of what the term Catch-22 means–with these treaties, corporations are not permitted to lose no matter how absurd what they want is.
The silver tounged lawyers working for these corporations belong in the closest thing to hell that can actualy be found…there being no such thing as hell.
This shows exactly how bad it will be if the TPP is passed. NAFTA did enough damage to our economy, sending manufacturing jobs to countries that don't pay anything but poverty wages, now they will be able to sue if we don't do as they ask.
This is exactly what TPP and TTIP have in store for us, but then for all of us. I recently read an article here in OZ warning the Australians for the TPP where Canada was given as an example to learn from because it was sued about a dozen of times by American companies because it wouldn't allow them to do as they pleased. It has cost the Canadian government millions in settlements and costs
This is the future for all of us: whenever a government sees fit to protect its peoples health or its environment, TPP and TTIP allow companies to drag these governments before their own "courts", made up of peer companies in stead of independent judges. Welcome to the corporate world.
Thanks all. If coursae, it the US were attacked by a band of marauding Sasquatches, they would be very polite!!
LOL!
TTP is going to be a sure-fire mishap for the US!