Obama Is Negotiating an Agreement That Could Unleash Fracking Around the World

[cali]

There is a river running through Quebec called the St. Lawrence. It touches New York state as it connects the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic. It carries boats, waters crops and feeds aquifers. It darts out into swimmable lakes and canals, and if it were polluted with toxic chemicals ... it would be a great loss. This is why Quebec placed a moratorium on fracking when American energy company, Lone Pine, decided to frack beneath the river.

Now, the Quebec government is being sued for protecting its citizens and environment over the companies' interests under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It's an illustrative example of what's wrong with some international trade agreements: they effectively reduce regulation by preventing individual nations from enforcing their own rules and regulations.

Scenarios like this one could start playing out all over Europe and the United States if another trade deal, currently being negotiated, goes through. It would be the largest in the world: the transatlantic free trade agreement, knitting together the United States and Europe in a major trade network that could have massive repercussions on our environment (among other things) and lead to a fracking boom.

President Obama is set to meet with top European Union officials in Brussels on Wednesday and it's going to be on their agenda.

<snip>

http://www.policymic.com/articles/85797/obama-is-negotiating-an-agreement-that-could-unleash-fracking-around-the-world-see-how

President Obama throws us crumbs, and hands out t-bones to the corporations. I'm sorry that's true. I wish it weren't true, but it is. better than a republican, but that's not saying much. and yes, he's good on important social issues, but environmental and economic issues are vital. and he's not so good there.

[alsame]

1. UK's Cameron wants more fracking

UK's Cameron wants more fracking after Crimea 'wake-up call'


THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Energy independence and the adoption of technologies like shale gas fracking should top Europe's political agenda, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday, calling the Crimea crisis a "wake-up call" for states reliant on Russian gas.

Escalating East-West tensions over Russia's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine have endangered the energy security of some European states, including Germany, who are heavily dependent on Russian gas supplies.

"Some countries are almost 100 percent reliant on Russian gas, so I think it is something of a wake-up call," Cameron told reporters on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit on Tuesday.

A hastily-convened meeting of the G7 major industrialized nations on Monday agreed that ministers would work together to reduce dependence on Russian oil and gas.


http://news.yahoo.com/uks-cameron-wants-more-fracking-crimea-wake-call-220104832.html

[Cali_Democrat]

2. It looks like Putin's invasion of Crimea will lead to more fracking in the US

Western Europe will need more reliable energy supplies and it's going to be North America who picks up the slack.

[cali]

3. fracking is the wild west. it is exempt from the clean air act. it is exempt

the clean water act. the feds do not require frackers to reveal the chemicals they use in extraction. President Obama voted for the Halliburton loophole that exempted big oil and gas from environmental regulation. He's a big supporter of fracking.

fracking has been growing at a dizzying pace with virtually no regulation.

[Cali_Democrat]

7. Now it's gonna grow at an even faster pace.

There will be a new drive to extract as much NG as possible.

[cali]

8. do you support that kind of unregulated super growth?

[Cali_Democrat]

9. No. nt

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

4. If the Parti Quebecois gets a majority of seats in the April 7 election...

Quebec sovereignty may be back on the table.

[frazzled]

5. It's a small private company suing, not the US, and it's far from clear

that its suit (initiated a number of years ago) will be settled (indeed, I can't even find out what has happened since a request for arbitration was filed in fall 2012). At any rate, they're not asking to be allowed to frack. They want their money back--what they claim is $250 million in fees they paid to the Canadian government before the project was scuttled by the ban:

Company Seeks Nafta Cover After Quebec Says ‘Non’ to Shale Gas
by Paul Vieira, November 16, 2012, Bloomberg

Now, one small energy producer is fighting back Lone Pine Resources Inc. LPR -3.57%–spun off last year from Denver-based Forest Oil Corp. FST +0.95%–has filed notice that it’s seeking arbitration under the North American Free-Trade Agreement’s Chapter 11 clause. Under Chapter 11, companies have a right to make a claim against Canada, the U.S. or Mexico if they believe government policy negatively affected their investment. Milos Barutciski, a Toronto lawyer from Bennett Jones who’s representing Lone Pine, acknowledged the provincial government has the right to regulate shale-gas exploration, or impose a moratorium if it so chooses. But it doesn’t have the right to take away mining licenses, he said. “It just can’t, for political reasons, expropriate our property,” Mr. Barutciski said. “And that’s exactly what Nafta’s investor-rights provision is intended to protect.” Mr. Barutciski said his client would continue talking to the province of Quebec and the Canadian government to find a resolution, but filed the Nafta claim so it can get the legal process underway. There is a now a 90-day period in which the parties can negotiate a settlement. If no pact is reached, then the case goes to arbitration.

A similar challenge was launched in 2008 by Abitibi Bowater RFP +1.78%, now known as Resolute Forest Products, when the government of Newfoundland and Labrador expropriated the majority of the company’s provincial assets. Roughly two years later, the Canadian government and Abitibi reached a settlement that involved a taxpayer-funded payout to Abitibi of 130 million Canadian dollars ($129.8 million.)

http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/nafta-challenge-launched-over-quebec-fracking-ban

I don't think the end-of-world scenario you are painting is what is at stake here. It's not open-season on fracking in Canada: they are entirely allowed within the framework of NAFTA to ban fracking.

[daggahead]

6. We All Need To ...

Become George Hayduke ...