Mining Company Sues Canada Over Fracking Ban in Quebec

[marmar]

(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 Quebec’s St. Lawrence River. But in spite of the parties involved, the case will not be heard in a public Canadian court.

Though the energy company’s 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 tribunals—international 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 Club’s Responsible Trade Program. “Other public interest policies, whether [they’re] 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 Quebec’s June 2011 ban on fracking in the bed of the St. Lawrence River—which prohibits all “oil and gas activities” in the river—amounts to an “arbitrary, capricious and illegal revocation of the [company’s] 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 shale—a 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/

[agent46]

1. I'm thinking this is some kind of TPP test case

The Trans-Pacific Partnership grants corporations rights to sue any government if their policies cause loss of profits. The TPP isn't about trade. It's about granting corporations leverage over nations and their resources. It represents one of the final ratchet steps to complete corporate sovereignty. If this suit is successful, it will likely set a precedent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Strategic_Economic_Partnership