The tar sands company behind the Keystone XL pipeline is suing U.S. taxpayers for $15 billion -- all because the U.S. government rejected the Keystone XL pipeline project.
Taxpayers will be on the hook for billions in damages if TransCanada wins.
This is a new low, even for TransCanada.
Can you sign the petition to TransCanada now to drop this frivolous lawsuit?
The Keystone XL pipeline was designed to transport hundreds of thousands of barrels of bitumen, the world's dirtiest oil, from Canada's controversial tar sands to world markets. Pumping these record amounts of crude oil would spell disaster for the climate, and be incredibly hazardous in the case of a spill -- and that's why Americans stood together to say no.
TransCanada is using NAFTA -- the North American Free Trade Agreement -- to file its lawsuit. Instead of in a court of law, the decision about billions of dollars in taxpayer money will be made undemocratically in a private tribunal.
Lawsuits like this prove just how dangerous global trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Pact (TTIP) can be.
TransCanada's lawsuit is unlikely to reverse the US government's decision on the pipeline project. But more to the point, if TransCanada wins, it will prove to other tar sands companies that laws and people power don't matter when corporations can merely file a lawsuit when they don't get their way.
TransCanada is showing its true colors right now -- a blatant disregard for the law, democracy, and the planet. We can't let it win this fight. Not this time, and not ever.
Sign the petition to TransCanada: drop your NAFTA lawsuit now.
We've been at work for years fighting global trade deals, and working to hold the Canadian tar sands industry and Bg Oil to account. We need your help right now to take on this fight -- together we can win.
More information:
Obama hit with NAFTA challenge over Keystone pipeline, Politico, January 6, 2016.
TransCanada sues U.S. over Keystone XL pipeline rejection, Reuters, January 6, 2016.