TransCanada formally seeks NAFTA damages in Keystone XL rejection

[cali]

TransCanada Corp is formally requesting arbitration over U.S. President Barack Obama's rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, seeking $15 billion in damages, the company said in legal papers dated Friday.

TransCanada submitted a notice for an arbitration claim in January and had then tried to negotiate with the U.S. government to "reach an amicable settlement," the company said in files posted on the pipeline's website.

"Unfortunately, the parties were unable to settle the dispute."

TransCanada said it then filed its formal arbitration request under North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provisions, seeking to recover what it says are costs and damages.

The Keystone XL was designed to link existing pipeline networks in Canada and the United States to bring crude from Alberta and North Dakota to refineries in Illinois and, eventually, the Gulf of Mexico coast.

Obama rejected the cross-border crude oil pipeline last November, seven years after it was first proposed, saying it would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to the U.S. economy.


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read:http://www.reuters.com/article/us-transcanada-keystone-idUSKCN0ZB0R9

[think]

1. The American tax payer is being sued for not letting a pipeline for tar sands

being allowed to be built in our country....

[cali]

2. TC is, as the article states, also suing in Federal Court here

in an effort to force the pipeline to be go through.

Posters who support these deals often say that corporations haven't succeeded using the ISDS system, against the U.S. I say so far. And the TPP will enable more corporations more access to the flawed ISDS.

And corporations have succeeded in other countries.

[mrr303am]

3. And the floodgates will open

Once congress and Obama signs TPP into law after the general elections. Corporations all around the globe will be suing us for any and all reasons they feel our current laws are cutting into their profits.

[msanthrope]

5. They'll lose. mt

[cali]

7. Maybe. Maybe not. But corporations have won in other cases using ISDS

in other countries. And the TPP will give more corporations access to the same kind of dispute system. It's not just the use of the ISDS. The threat of using it is and has been effective.

It's a matter of time.

[msanthrope]

9. The US has never lost a case. And railing against arbitration is an antiquated view of dispute

resolution.

[cali]

10. baloney. has never is not synonymous with "will never"

And the ISDS process gains more traction and more grants more power to more corporations. That's simply fact.

The U.S. has already been impacted by threats. And we aren't the only country in the world.

[msanthrope]

14. The only fact presented is that the United States has never lost a case.

Your opinion on the isds process is not supported by fact, but built o. speculation.

Although I am glad to give you this opportunity to present facts which would support transcanada's case against President Obama..... please list facts supporting their claim below.

[TransitJohn]

11. Can they sue for "lost expected future profits"?

If NAFTA were the TPP, they could.

[think]

12. Hope not. It's bad enough they can sue for being blocked from pumping tar sands through a pipeline.

[cali]

4. From Ecowatch

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On June 24, foreign oil company TransCanada filed a lawsuit against the U.S. under NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, arguing that the U.S. rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline violated NAFTA’s broad rights for foreign investors by thwarting the company’s “expectations.” As compensation, TransCanada is demanding more than $15 billion from U.S. taxpayers.

TransCanada’s case will be heard in a private tribunal of three lawyers who are not accountable to any domestic legal system, thanks to NAFTA’s “investor-state” system, which is also included in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The controversial TPP would empower thousands of additional corporations, including major polluters, to follow TransCanada’s example and use this private tribunal system to challenge U.S. climate and environmental policies.

TransCanada’s Request for Arbitration follows the Notice of Intent to submit a claim to arbitration that it filed on Jan. 6.

<snip>


The TPP would empower thousands of new firms operating in the U.S, including major polluters, to follow in TransCanada’s footsteps and undermine our critical climate safeguards in private trade tribunals. Today, we have a prime example of how polluter-friendly trade deals threaten our efforts to tackle the climate crisis, spotlighting the need for a new model of trade model that supports rather than undermines climate action. We urge our members of Congress to learn from this historic moment and commit to reject the TPP.

Here’s more information on the TPP:

•Environmental opposition to the TPP is mounting. Earlier in June, more than 450 environmental, landowner, Indigenous rights, and allied organizations sent a letter to Congress warning that pending trade deals like the TPP threaten efforts to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

<snip>

http://ecowatch.com/2016/06/25/transcanada-nafta-keystone-xl-tpp/

[msanthrope]

6. They'll lose. nt

[pampango]

8. As long as Obama's decision was based on facts, not xenophobia - and it was - no problem.

Obviously, if some government made a decision against a foreign company for political or xenophobic reasons - imagine what a President Trump is capable of - that would be a different matter.

Anyone who thinks Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline out of some xenophobia that it was a Canadian company, is not in touch with reality. It is hard to imagine that the executives are TransCanada really think that. Perhaps this is intended to cover their a****s against their board of directors and stockholders. "Obama did this to us because we are Canadian!"

[Hoyt]

13. TransCanada also filed suit in our regular court system outside of NAFTA, they won't win either suit

unless they can help a GOPer win the Presidency who will approve the pipeline.