Mining Company Sues Canada Over Fracking Ban in Quebec
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In These Times) On September 6, Canadian energy company Lone Pine filed a $250 million lawsuit against the Canadian government that took aim at a fracking ban in Quebecs St. Lawrence River. But in spite of the parties involved, the case will not be heard in a public Canadian court.
Though the energy companys operations are based almost exclusively in in Canada, the company is chartered in Delaware. As a result, Lone Pine is able to take advantage of a provision in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that allows companies to sue foreign governments for allegedly violating certain provisions of the trade deal. Companies can litigate such investor-state disputes in special third-party tribunalsinternational courts of law entirely separate from domestic courts.
The fact that a private corporation is able to sue Canada over this public interest policy in a private trade tribunal, not in public court, in an un-transparent process, is a really terrifying prospect, says Ilana Solomon, director of the Sierra Clubs Responsible Trade Program. Other public interest policies, whether [theyre] related to climate or our jobs, could all be subject to attack by corporations under our trade deals.
In the suit, Lone Pine is alleging that Quebecs June 2011 ban on fracking in the bed of the St. Lawrence Riverwhich prohibits all oil and gas activities in the riveramounts to an arbitrary, capricious and illegal revocation of the [companys] valuable right to mine for oil and gas. Stretching across the province from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Ontario, the river lies within the natural gas-rich Utica Shale. Lone Pine estimates that its permit for gas exploration under the river covered an area containing as much as 3.3 billion cubic feet of undiscovered shalea highly lucrative prospect that the ban has now put out of reach. .................(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://inthesetimes.com/article/15847/mining_company_sues_canada_over_fracking_ban_in_quebec/