Brian Mulroney caused Canada, us, our natural resources (forcing the give away our natural gas to USA for less than cost of production) and environment, notably drinking water, much harm because of his gift to Americans and raping corporations via NAFTA, just another scam to steal billions of tax dollars from the commons to launder over to the already too rich.
I bet that if the countries were reversed – if Canada had said no to TC, instead of the USA – the tribunal would have ordered us to pay up, in full, perhaps even more than the company greedily demanded. USA is the world’s nastiest and most powerful bully, I doubt the panel members have the guts to tell USA to pay up.
Charles Rusnell@charlesrusnell:
Calgary’s TC Energy is one of the main sponsors of the Republican National Convention.
TC Energy’s US$15B Keystone XL claim thrown out by trade tribunal, A free trade arbitration tribunal has tossed out TC Energy Corp.’s claim that it is owed US$15 billion in damages as a result of President Joe Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline permit by The Canadian Press, July 16, 2024, City News Everywhere
A free trade arbitration tribunal has tossed out TC Energy Corp.’s claim that it is owed US$15 billion in damages as a result of U.S. President Joe Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline permit.
TC Energy launched a claim in 2021 under the legacy rules tied to the old North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, because of what it said was the U.S. government’s breach of its free trade obligations.
TC Energy proposed the Keystone XL project under the Obama administration, which ultimately rejected it on environmental grounds. U.S. President Donald Trump revived the project, but Biden then killed it again by revoking the pipeline’s permit on his first day as president in 2021.
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal sided with the U.S. last Friday in the matter by refusing to hear the case.
The tribunal said the legacy provisions tied to the old NAFTA only permit claims based on breaches that allegedly occurred while NAFTA was in force.
Biden revoked Keystone XL’s permit a year after NAFTA was terminated and the new US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) took its place.
@Claire_Kraatz:
Of course it was. What a ridiculous waste of money. No public $$ should be going to fossil fuel projects.
G Montpetit July 16, 2024:
ISDS are legal instruments whereby foreign companies have total control over the local government , and all democratic tools of a country. It means that any attemps to protect the environment, indigenous rights, and the health and safety of citizens will automatically be termed « capricious» and therefore must be punished. Not only is it anti-democratic, it also means that foreign investors have total control to crush any attempts to fight climate change. In short, ISDS clauses are 17th century colonialism as the tool of choice for extractive industries.
In Canada, we witnessed at least 3 such attempts to destroy environmental concerns with punitive charges.
A) Lone Pine ressources sued Canada for 250 millions (C)$ because the Charest goverment forbade drilling and fracking in the bed of the St Lawrence River in June 2011. After nearly 10 years of litigations, the case was rejected
B) The text documents TC ‘s second attempt to browbeat the gouvernment of the USA with a 15 billion lawsuit because Keystone XL was cancelled by President Biden in 2021. Many Americans were against this pipeline. Please remember that this is TC second lawsuit on the same subject. When President Obama cancelled Keystone ten years ago , TC launched a first lawsuit, but dropped its case when newly elected Trump allowed Keystone in 2017.
Thank God, this second case is dismissed!
C) The text says;«…One of the biggest current cases is Ruby River Capital’s US$20 billion lawsuit against Canada. The American company sued after the federal government and Quebec rejected its proposal to build a natural gas liquefaction plant and maritime terminal near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, citing climate and environmental concerns that arose during the environmental assessment….»
Once more, foreign investors want to impose their financial interest despite the will of duly elected government, environmental assessments, indigeonous rights and the fact that this Gazoduct project was greenwashing fracked gas in clear violation of the Paris Accord. Democracy urgently demands that this ludicrous case be dismissed.
Finally, an interesting refusal to answer the question. In March 2016, during hearings by the BAPE(Québec’s environmental assestment agency) about the Energy East pipeline project, M Patrick Bonin (Greenpeace) asked it Trans Canada Pipelines( now TC) would agree not to sue Canada (and Québec) if Energy East should be rejected. The representative of TC did not answer the question!
…
For more information on ISDS see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0LOwmwgkdA
***
Yup, Albertans are the stupidest voters in Canada:
Holly Hoye she/her in AB@hollyhoye:
“The decision also raises doubts about whether the Alberta government will recover any of its losses as an investor in the project.”
Hear that whoosh? That’s the sound of Jason Kenney flushing $1.3 Billion down the drain.I don’t think Kenney or UCP see it as a loss, it’s the public’s money, I believe they intentionally took it from us, to give to TC as a little bonus, a friendly gift … just for being a big oil polluter helping dirty politicians get into power. Politicians no longer serve those that pay their salaries and pensions, and vote for them; they serve kid raping religions, polluters, mountain and forest destroying multinationals.
TC Energy’s $15B Keystone XL legal claim against U.S. government thrown out, Alberta government continues its own legal action as an investor in failed project by Kyle Bakx, CBC News, Jul 16, 2024
The nearly two-decade-long oil pipeline saga surrounding the failed Keystone XL pipeline is nearing an end, as Calgary-based TC Energy has lost its bid to recoup $15 billion US from the U.S. government.
The decision also raises doubts about whether the Alberta government will recover any of its losses as an investor in the project.
TC Energy first proposed the 1,897-kilometre pipeline in 2005 to transport oil from Alberta to the U.S. Midwest.
The company permanently suspended the project in January 2021, after U.S. President Joe Biden pulled the presidential permit for the pipeline. Only about 150 kilometres of pipe was installed in Alberta.
A divided three-judge panel of arbitrators, sitting at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, ruled against TC Energy on Friday.
… TC Energy said the company has not recognized in its financial statements, nor factored into its outlook, any potential recoveries related to the NAFTA claim.
… The final chapter of the ill-fated Keystone XL project will likely be the ongoing claim by the Alberta government, which became an investor in the project in 2021 and provided loan guarantees to TC Energy to help kick-start construction of the pipeline in the province.
The same free-trade arbitration tribunal that heard TC Energy’s case will consider the Alberta government’s claim, although different arbitrators will be involved.
In its filing, the province is asking the tribunal to award damages of at least $1.6 billion Cdn “as compensation for the losses caused by, or arising out of, the U.S. government’s measures which have been held to have breached the terms of the CUSMA and NAFTA” trade agreements.
…
TC Energy’s US$15-billion Keystone XL claim thrown out by trade tribunal by Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press, July 16, 2024, The Globe and Mail
TC Energy Corp. TRP-T, the Canadian company behind the ill-fated Keystone XL pipeline, has suffered a major blow after a trade tribunal tossed out its claim to US$15 billion in damages.
The Calgary-based company launched the claim in 2021 to seek compensation after its proposed Keystone XL pipeline project was scuttled by U.S. President Joe Biden.
The claim was made under the legacy rules tied to the old North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, because of what TC Energy said was the U.S. government’s breach of its free trade obligations.
Keystone XL was a proposed crude oil transportation pipeline, roughly 1,900-kilometres long, which would have carried oil from the oil sands of northern Alberta to the major U.S. crude storage hub at Cushing, Okla. and then on to Gulf Coast refineries.
But the project became a lightning rod for controversy and environmental and Indigenous activism, in addition to being subject to government flip-flops.
TC Energy first proposed the Keystone XL project under the Obama administration, which ultimately rejected it on environmental grounds.
U.S. President Donald Trump revived the project, but Biden then killed it again by revoking the pipeline’s permit on his first day as president in 2021.
In its claim, TC Energy said it was due more than US$15 billion in damages as a result of the years it spent navigating legal and regulatory challenges before the Biden administration officially spiked the project by revoking a key permit.
Construction on the pipeline had already begun when the project was cancelled.Only a Calgary company would be that stupid, and that arrogant, to start work on a project not yet approved. Standard gunky tar stupid in Alberta.
But the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal sided with the U.S. government in the matter last Friday by refusing to hear TC Energy’s case.
The tribunal said the legacy provisions tied to the old NAFTA only permit claims based on breaches that allegedly occurred while NAFTA was in force.
Biden revoked Keystone XL’s permit a year after NAFTA was terminated and the new US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) took its place.
In an e-mail Tuesday, TC Energy expressed its dismay over the tribunal’s decision.
“We are both disappointed and frustrated with the Tribunal’s decision to deny our right to bring a legacy NAFTA claim,” said Patrick Keys, executive vice-president and general counsel for TC Energy.
“This ruling does not align with our expectations and views of the plain interpretation of the protections NAFTA and the USMCA were designed to offer. TC Energy was treated unfairly and inequitably in the revocation of the permit, which was driven by political considerations.”
The tribunal’s decision was hailed by environmental activists, who interpreted it as evidence that fossil fuel companies will not be able to successfully sue governments for policy changes made for the good of the environment or to mitigate the effects of climate change.
“This is an important precedent, because governments need to be able to take action to protect people (from climate change) and corporations shouldn’t be able to sue them for it,” said Keith Stewart, senior energy strategist at Greenpeace Canada.
“The threat of these types of lawsuits has actually been giving governments cold feet about taking bold action (on climate) and I think we should recognize this decision as saying, ‘full speed ahead.”’
But Heather Exner-Pirot, special advisor to the Business Council of Canada, said the decision could have a chilling effect on businesses of all types, not just the fossil fuel sector.
“This undermines certainty for industry, and they will be less likely on the whole to invest in long-term projects,” she said.Industry is often stupid, bullying, and wasteful. TC deserves this shit flung in their face.
“What (this decision says) is, you don’t know what the political winds will bring in 10 years, or in five years, but there’ll be no protection for the investment decisions you make today.”Oh fucking bullshit. This project was stupid from the get go and TC knows it.
Exner-Pirot added that while she’s not surprised by the tribunal’s decision to reject TC Energy’s claim, she understands why the company felt they had to make it.
“I’m guessing that for them it was some kind of line in the sand,” she said.Fuck no, it was a gamble for TC to make masses more profits than if they had been granted approval, built the line and shipped Alberta’s highly polluting toxic tar gunk.
“For a company, they can’t have these political decisions affecting their business, this flip-flopping between left and right. I’m sure they felt that at some point, someone had to say, ‘This is not the way to go.”’
The government of Alberta also has a complaint pending before the ICSID panel.
In 2020, the Alberta government agreed to invest about $1.5 billion in equity in the Keystone XL project in an effort to get the stalled pipeline project moving.It was bravado and ego of the stupidest kind by Kenney Klan, but in reality, it was money laundering, stealing from the commons to give to the rich, Kenney, Harper, Picklehead and UCP’s favourite past time.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for Alberta’s Energy and Minerals Minister Brian Jean said the province expects the tribunal to make a decision in its matter by fall of this year.
“As to the arbitration decision on TC Energy’s claim, we are reviewing the tribunal’s decision for information purposes, but Alberta Energy will not comment on a third party’s legal proceeding,” said spokesman Benji Smith in an e-mail.
Refer also to:
Sodding greedy clusterfucks at Ruby River Capital LLC (U.S.-based owner of GNL Québec Inc.) and Osler in Calgary, you’re way out of line with your $20 Billion in lost profits demand.
Frac’ing loses money. It loses lots of money, notably for stupid investors. It’s not Canadians’ fault (or the BAPE or gov’ts) that investors and Liquid unNatural-frac’d Gas (LNG) companies refuse to learn from their repeat money losing mistakes.
1982 LNG bomb cartoon in Vancouver Sun
LNG is frac’d gas. LNG is a massive money losing polluter, and seems to only make money if billions in “subsidies” are stolen from the people by politicians feeding companies like you.
2021:
Cartoon by Graeme MacKay in The Hamilton Spectator
…
Free trade critics say a $250-million damage suit being pursued as a result of Quebec’s moratorium on fracking is proof Canada needs to be careful in negotiating trade pacts around the world. The Council of Canadians, the Sierra Club and Quebec-based Eau secours say the suit by Lone Pine Resources Inc. (TSX:LPR) shows that trade deals that include investor protection clauses are a bad idea because they can prevent governments from passing laws to protect the environment. The groups are asking Lone Pine to drop the suit before a NAFTA panel, but company president Tim Granger says he is going ahead unless Quebec lifts its moratorium on fracking for natural gas under the St. Lawrence River.
…
Last November, the company announced it was suing the Government of Canada in a case involving Quebec’s controversial moratorium on hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Lone Pine says the Quebec government’s move to cancel a natural gas exploration permit for deposits beneath the St. Lawrence River the previous year was “arbitrary, capricious and illegal.” The company said it was filing the suit under the Chapter 11 dispute settlement provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement and that it was launched against Ottawa because it is responsible for acts by provinces both under NAFTA and international law.
