TransCanada Sues Obama Administration; Says Keystone Pipeline Rejection Was Unconstitutional

Tyler Durden's picture




 

On November 6, Obama was delighted to take his place in the pantheon of progressive, liberal Warren Buffett apparatchiks when he proudly announced that the Keystone XL pipeline, which had been delayed for years, had finally been rejected.

 

Exactly two months later, Obama's "mission accomplished" banner has just led to a big slap on the face of the former constitutional expert, and could carry a multi-billion dollar chage after late this afternoon, TransCanada filed a lawsuit in Federal court in Houston, suing the U.S. government and claiming the Obama acted unconstitutionally when he rejected the Keystone XL, while also seeking $15 billion alleging the pipeline denial was "arbitrary and unjustified."

The company's lawsuit in federal court in Houston does not seek legal damages but wants the permit denial invalidated and seeks a ruling that no future president can block construction.

According to Reuters, in filing the NAFTA claim, TransCanada said it "had every reason to expect its application would be granted" as it had met the same criteria the U.S. State Department used when approving other similar cross-border pipelines.

"Presumably they have a case that there are damages, as they were led to believe that if they did these things they'd get it across the line, but they weren't able to," said portfolio manager Ryan Bushell at Leon Frazer & Associates in Toronto, whose firm owns more than a million shares in TransCanada.

 

"I'd imagine that this is more than a PR move and they believe they have a real case."

If so that would be big trouble for not only Obama, who will have to find a lot of NSA dirt on a Texas federal judge, but also for Warren Buffett, whose intervention in Obama's "decision-making process" on halting TransCanada will surely be divulged during the discovery process, revealing the crony capitalist who stood to benefit the most.

The White House referred requests for comment to the U.S. State Department. The State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Not surprisingly, Canada is staying far away from this one, In Ottawa, a spokesman for the Canadian foreign ministry said the government "has no role in this dispute." Since October, Canada has been run by Justin Trudeau's Liberals, who backed the pipeline but not as vociferously as the former ruling Conservatives.

TransCanada said it will also take an after-tax write down of C$2.5 billion ($1.78 billion) to C$2.9 billion in the fourth quarter after the permit denial.

The environmentalists, despite winning the first round, are suddenly concerned:

"The suit is a reminder that we shouldn’t be signing new trade agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership that allow corporations to sue governments that try and keep fossil fuels in the ground," said Jason Kowalski, policy director of environmental group 350.org which opposed the pipeline.

TransCanada called the rejection "a symbolic gesture" aimed at burnishing the Obama administration's leadership on climate change in the eyes of the international community.

It was, of course, right. But more importantly, the rejection was a means to promote Warren Buffett's "alternative" oil pipelines, the railways, which in 2015 had their worst safety year on record, with countless flaming BNSF derailments, which, oddly enough, the White House had little to say about.

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Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:09 | 7008860 ebworthen
ebworthen's picture

WTF is "The Constitution"!?!?

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:14 | 7008878 jcaz
jcaz's picture

Barry can't wait to bend over....

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:56 | 7009026 Boris Alatovkrap
Boris Alatovkrap's picture

King Barry is act outside of Constitution!? Aghast, is cannot be true!?

Please you are wait while Boris is form expression of utmost surprise.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 00:01 | 7009044 What you talkin...
What you talkin about Willis's picture

Boris how do you  say dindu nothing ?

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 00:13 | 7009097 wee-weed up
wee-weed up's picture

"I don't need no steenkin' Constitution!" -- Obozo

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 00:38 | 7009173 KesselRunin12Parsecs
KesselRunin12Parsecs's picture

So when they win the lawsuit and the bill gets heaped on taxpayers, what's Obama's 'kickback' gonna be do you suppose?

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 02:19 | 7009412 Helena Bonham-Carter
Helena Bonham-Carter's picture

A multi-billion dollar chage

Chage in which ye canst believe

If ye can spayre some chage at all

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 07:52 | 7010003 mtl4
mtl4's picture

Gotta love the TPP........how can anyone possibly be so stupid to actually expect to get a fair ruling in the USSA?

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 08:47 | 7010261 zuuma
zuuma's picture

Do the Cana-Dudes have standing?  Is Trans Canada... a US Corp?

If they have standing, I say go for it!

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 10:26 | 7010867 Toronto Kid
Toronto Kid's picture

I don't think they expect a fair hearing, just one with all the goings on exposed to the press.

I almost exhaled my coffee when I read this headline this morning. I keep picturing Buffet and Obama's faces when they heard the news and I start laughing.

I wonder how long it will take before testimony hits the courts - will it be years or will it be in time to start hitting the newstands during the run up to your Presidential election?

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:51 | 7009010 El Cabron
El Cabron's picture

It's that scratchy thing Barry uses to wipe his ass.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:57 | 7009030 Boris Alatovkrap
Boris Alatovkrap's picture

Reggie is nick name "Scratchy"...?

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 07:51 | 7009999 kralizec
kralizec's picture

Boris left out "also".

 

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:54 | 7009016 Wulfkind
Wulfkind's picture

Wait a minute.   ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS ?    CANADA ????    CANADA IS SUING US OVER A BREACH OF THE CONSTITUTION ???     OUR......CONSTITUTION ????

You mean the CANADIANS have more balls than ANY REPUBLICAN in the LAST 8 YEARS ??????

Every year I've heard these spineless fucks cry....."This President is LAWLESS.   He's acting like a KING ! "    AND NOT ONE.......NOT ONE.....ARTICLE or ARTICLES of IMPEACHMENT.   NO ARREST WARRANT.

But.....hang on.....hang on.....what's that smell.   Seems familiar......like.....like.....the smell of breakfast.    Like......MAPLE SYRUP AND CANADIAN BACON !!!    IT'S THE CANADIANS COMING !!!!   THE CANADIANS ARE COMING TO DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION.

 

Cue scene from "The Untouchables"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COU-0Oe1nNY

 

 

 

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 00:00 | 7009033 Element
Element's picture

Lester Nygaard strikes back!

oh yaaar!

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 00:07 | 7009072 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

A great reply capturing the absurdity of the whole situation.

For the record: I agree with big oil. I agree with the Canadians and I am against the American (Communist), Obama. I know he's "our guy"...but he's really not.

This pipeline did every study, every permit and followed the rules. The usual Communist enviro's with Obama's help used lawsuits and reviews to tie up the project and abrogate the law. They used the law to break the law.

It is just one of the many contradictions in our sans Constitutional government these days.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 00:55 | 7009221 Automatic Choke
Automatic Choke's picture

That is standard procedure for environmentalism, and has been since the anti-nuke days of the '70s.   You don't stop it cold, you put them through the ringer, with decades of expensive studies and permitting processes, and every time they fulfill the procedural obligations, you change the rules and add more, until they are bankrupt.  It was unusual in this case, to actually declare it dead.....it would have been more fitting to hit it up with another 5 years of necessary studies.....

 

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 01:20 | 7009283 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

I sat in a closed lecture with an oil and gas guy. There is actually a standard fee or extortion payment per well. I think he said it was $5k and then they do not sue. This is a large part of their funding for groups like the Sierra Club.

It's a bunch of leftist, hypocrite lawyers profiting and looking like angels to the enviro-lemmings.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 03:20 | 7009501 Early Retirement
Early Retirement's picture

You are a liar. I'm in the business and we don't need the help of lobotomized trailer-trash like you. The truth is, Obama has bent over for the business, including rejecting a pipeline that would have costs thousands of jobs in US midcontinent oil production due to competing and heavily subsidized oil from Alberta taking its place. Obama approved Shell's stupid plan in the Arctic Circle and did not disapprove any drilling in the DWGOM after Horizon.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 06:35 | 7009742 SunRise
SunRise's picture

As a consumer of oil and believer in the necessity of individual freedom, how do you call cheaper oil to the consumer bad?  This talk of "1,000's of jobs" is a tired bromide.  Having a president of the U.S. "bending over" for any business is a president not conducting their proper role; which is,  to ensure the rights of the world's smallest minority - The Individual - to their own life and property.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 06:50 | 7009774 nmewn
nmewn's picture

He loves the "individual" so much he's saving us $2,500 each every year (average) on our health insurance. So much in fact, he needs to know everything we say on our cell phones, because...he cares.

Grrrrrr.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 12:56 | 7011973 Early Retirement
Early Retirement's picture

The ACA is a boon to corporate healthcare. It's horrible for individuals. We pay 90% as  much as before but go to the dictor 50% as often.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 12:57 | 7011989 Early Retirement
Early Retirement's picture

I'm not calling it bad. I'm saying Obama has been good for the business. Not for the public. Those guys with oil wells are very happy Keystone wasn't built.  Trailer-trash is lying to suggest otherwise.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 07:48 | 7009985 oldmanofthesee
oldmanofthesee's picture

Perhaps you are correct. However, the only connection, that I remember, between Shell and our traitor, is when a Shell President admitted voting for our traitor, TWICE! Hofmeister, I believe was his cover.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 09:07 | 7010364 drendebe10
drendebe10's picture

Correction. The illegal Indonesian kenyan alien muslim fudgepacker is not an American. There. Fixed it 

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 01:16 | 7009274 jcdenton
jcdenton's picture

Actually a Polack from Wisconsin ..

A Polack from Madison, Wisconsin beat the Canucks to it ..

By ...................

Oh, roughly several years ..

 

FAX to Joe Biden 11/8/2015

 

Barry was informed as well ..

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 07:43 | 7009957 BennyBoy
BennyBoy's picture

Sooooo.....would pipeline approval be "arbitrary and unjustified" and unconstitutional?!

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 09:17 | 7010412 BurningFuld
BurningFuld's picture

No because they met all the criteria of similar pipelines up to and including approval by the various states involved.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 01:48 | 7009339 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

The Constitution matter... less... here.  WTF is NAFTA ISDS and what are arbitrations under UNCITRAL rules?

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 02:09 | 7009388 Wulfkind
Wulfkind's picture

Ooohhhhh......just you wait, Bubba until TPP kicks in.   Just wait until China and India throw sueballs at us every fucking month.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 03:02 | 7009474 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

TPP & TTIP are for the slow kids, the tea baggers, and their liberal rimjob counterparts who feed off MSM drivel.

These treaties add nothing substantial over what is already contained in the NAFTA ISDS process, except expanding the geographic scope of potential claimants that the US has provided unilateral consent to submit to binding private arbitration with.

Now Uncle Sam will get the same shafting that Putin did under Yukos v Russia, only without some of the appeal, treaty withdrawal, other options that Russia has.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 05:57 | 7009692 GCT
GCT's picture

Bingo Urban Redneck you win the prize!! 

ISDS will destroy all sovereignty of any country that signs the TPP.  There are 15 arbitrators in the world, 13 in the USA, and 2  in Europe.   They work for the same firms that large corporations have on retainer.  We are basically fucked, and YES we taxpayers will be on the hook for the judgement.   The ISDS is a separate legal system used by the mega Corporations.  We working pleebs cannot use this system to sue a corporation.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 08:21 | 7009931 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

I think your numbers are off, there are well over hundred possible arbitrators that could realistically be named to this case, most of whom aren't American, the Americans might very well name an American arbitrator, but TransCanada most likely will not name an American on principal, and the chairman of the tribunal is unlikely to be an American.  In terms of the grey beards of the business whose standing and expertise is beyond question (because they largely built the industry over the last 30-40 years) there are only about a dozen... 

If for some reason TransCanada wanted to name a Canadian (which isn't necessary, and might actually complicate matters) they could always name Yves Fourtier, who actually wrote the award opinion of Kardassopoulos v. Georgia that, "it is clear on the evidence in these proceedings that “happiness is multiple pipelines”"

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 06:56 | 7009785 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

UR, +1. translation for "...except expanding the geographic scope..." -> shafting foreigners, too. as one of those foreigners in foreign lands, my answer is "thanks, but no, thanks"

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 09:03 | 7009966 Urban Redneck
Urban Redneck's picture

You're a foreigner???  Have you looked in a mirror or at your neighbors recently?  (London Court of International Arbitration, ICC International Court of Arbitration (Paris), Permanent Court of Arbitration (Hague), Stockholm Chamber of Commerce Arbitration Institute, Milan Chamber of Commerce,  DIS (Germany), and the three in Switzerland...)  This is the European way superseding the American way... reservations about ending the hypocrisy and finally subjecting EU governments to TTIP notwithstanding,.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 12:59 | 7012003 Wulfkind
Wulfkind's picture

Overarching translation......

New World Order

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 04:57 | 7009618 dogfish
dogfish's picture

The collar is going on the wrong dog,it should be the other way around.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 04:57 | 7009619 SoDamnMad
SoDamnMad's picture

ebworthen

The Constitution is something a lot of my friends died for.

I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me...

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:10 | 7008865 I AM SULLY
I AM SULLY's picture

Obama?

Doing something unconstitutional?

(how bizarre)

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:11 | 7008872 I AM SULLY
I AM SULLY's picture

Time for Dark Eyes ...

(cuz you're a winner)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI6bgTuhOgY

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:19 | 7008897 nevertheless
nevertheless's picture

Of all the things Obama has done, that may be unconstitutional, this is one I could not care less about. 

 

I would say assassinating people without a trial, spying on Americans, invading nations that are no threat to us...might be a bit more morally and ethically important to our Union, that stopping rich polluting mother fuckers from making another buck. 

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 00:10 | 7009081 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

You know, they all really go together. It is not like a lawless government just breaks one or two. They trash them all.

Think KGB. They did not just spy, did not just arrest, did not just torture/interrogate, did not just ignore due process...they did it all and one of their own leads the Russian government.

We have a Chicago thug at the head of ours. The Law does not prosecute his own (Lerner, Corzine, Clinton, etc.) but is useful against opponents.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 00:10 | 7009082 FreedomGuy
FreedomGuy's picture

You know, they all really go together. It is not like a lawless government just breaks one or two. They trash them all.

Think KGB. They did not just spy, did not just arrest, did not just torture/interrogate, did not just ignore due process...they did it all and one of their own leads the Russian government.

We have a Chicago thug at the head of ours. The Law does not prosecute his own (Lerner, Corzine, Clinton, etc.) but is useful against opponents.

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:11 | 7008870 knukles
knukles's picture

Those derailments could be avoided if the trains went much faster because then it would take less time to transport the oil from point a to b meaning less time for an accident to happen.
So we don't need no steeenkin' pipeline to pursue environmental justice.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 06:56 | 7009782 Wahooo
Wahooo's picture

I'm seeing bullet trains with oil.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 11:10 | 7011134 Gohigher
Gohigher's picture

Idiots all ! What we need are huge super-train pipes underground with cars balanced on superconducting magnets to transport this oil for Warren AND the canuks. Get the lobbyists out so congress can support this brilliant solution to mitigate lawsuits and avoid these train wrecks.  You know, for the children ........

 

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:16 | 7008889 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

USD/CAD 140?

  That's pre '99 brutal?

Wed, 01/06/2016 - 23:50 | 7009006 Rock On Roger
Rock On Roger's picture

Produce in CAD, sell in USD keeps the world turning.

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 00:19 | 7009116 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 Some lobbyists are going to get fired?

Thu, 01/07/2016 - 00:53 | 7009212 Rock On Roger
Rock On Roger's picture

Nope, some producers get wise.

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