General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: TPP branded as trade agreement, but what's really at stake. From Public Citizen. [View all]HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)against 'the will of the governed' that is represented in local, regional and national regulations and law.
And as it is put in place it guarantees that the corporations can sue for intangible values lost to new regulation.
Imagine me a few years back. I had farmland on a sandy glacial hillside with two roads running along side it.... Potentially that land could be leased for a billboard, or a power generating windmill, or a quarry for fracking sands.
But as it did, along came the local government one year and it said...no billboards because we want to preserve a 'pastoral landscape'. I lost out on my opportunity for billboard cash. That could be construed as a taking of intangible value inherent in my property...if I was an international corporation I could sue the town for that sort of lost profit.
Now, later on Scott Walker and the bros Fitzgerald came in to support traditional power generation. And they said you can't put up a wind turbine within 1000 feet of a road. Well, because of where roads are to my property I lost out on another potential opportunity. Scotty took away my opportunity to lease property for wind turbines (and this area -would- support wind turbines). If I was an international corporation I could sue the state for that sort of lost profit.
Now, on a scale of one farm it would make no sense to have such a suit, but imagine a corporation losing some 'potential future profit' that would be measured in millions rather than a few thousands of dollars. It could be brutal.
Imagine an international business in waste-removal. Imagine them buying my farm or my neighbors and wanting to put in a dump. 15 miles away there is such a dump...it's nearing the end of it's life, the mountain of trash is several hundred feet high and spreads over 20 acres. The company has earned scores of millions of dollars building that midden. If the town or county said no to their putting in a dump on the land I sold to them, the international corporation could potentially sue for lost scores of millions of dollars of future profits. No little WI township is going to stand in the face of such a threat. Local control will be lost.