Ada Recinos, Deputy Press Secretary, ada.recinos@sierraclub.org (Pacific Time)
WASHINGTON, DC – Earlier this week, a trade tribunal dismissed the NAFTA-legacy case brought by TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) against the United States for $15 billion over President Biden’s revocation of the Keystone XL Pipeline permit. TC Energy’s use of NAFTA’s archaic and unfair investor-state dispute settlement system (ISDS), which is mirrored in hundreds of trade pacts around the world, shows how fossil fuel corporations use the current trade regime to stymie climate action while trying to fleece taxpayers out of millions – if not billions – of dollars.
“Corporate profiteering has no place in a just transition, which means investor-state dispute settlement has got to end. The dismissal of TC Energy’s case against the U.S. over the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline should be a signal to the Biden Administration that it is time to end these shady corporate trade tribunals once and for all. We must rewrite the rules of trade to ensure they support, not undermine, climate action,” said CeCe Grant, Campaign Director, Sierra Club’s Industrial Transformation Campaign.
The multibillion dollar pipeline, which would have transported dirty tar sands oil from Canada across the United States and to the Gulf Coast for export, was poised to pollute waterways and farmland, undermine our climate goals, and threaten indigenous communities and violate Tribal Sovereignty.
"It was always clear that the Keystone XL was not in the national interest because of the harms it would have done to communities, clean water, tribal sovereignty, and the climate," said Sierra Club Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign Director Cathy Collentine. "President Biden made the right decision by rejecting it, and we're glad that TC Energy's attempt to force American taxpayers to foot the bill for their ill-advised proposal has been shut down. We must act to change trade policies that allow corporate polluters to hold our communities hostage to move their dangerous projects forward."
ISDS has been used by fossil fuel companies around the world as a nefarious subsidy, allowing them to sue governments for huge sums over money when public interest measures threaten their investments. Eliminating ISDS is an essential part of a just transition.
Background
The Sierra Club recently released a groundbreaking report demanding the US reorient its trade pacts. Trading Away Our Climate: How Corporations Use Trade and Investment Agreements to Undermine Action on Climate Change, highlights how fossil fuel companies worldwide threaten climate progress through outdated trade agreements that favor corporate interests over the public good. The report scrutinizes trade and investment agreements containing investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions as significant obstacles to lowering emissions and achieving a just clean energy transition, and includes a case study on the Keystone XL Pipeline.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.