REVENGE COULD COST CANADA $475 Millions

Energy

Environmentally-friendly Canadian gov't could face $475M payout for blocking US wind energy company
Published May 12, 2016
FoxNews.com 



Blame Canada.
A U.S.-based company that accused the Canadian government of using phony environmental concerns to keep wind turbines off the Great Lakes could be close to a ruling in its $568 million suit.
A panel of international law experts could rule any day now on whether Ontario's open-ended "temporary ban" violated the North American Free Trade Agreement, as alleged by Windstream Energy.
In creating the moratorium, Ontario said it needed more time to study the environmental impact of the turbines, but documents obtained by Windstream seem to show the real reason was aesthetic, not environmental.
Indiana-based Windstream's 100-turbine offshore windfarm near Kingston on Lake Ontario was key to a deal the company had struck with Ontario's power authority. The company claims a $6 million security deposit was illegally seized and all its investments in the project rendered a loss.
Windstream's attorneys argue that under NAFTA, investments by U.S. companies in Canada cannot be arbitrarily scuttled. A decision is due imminently from a three-member panel convened by the Netherlands-based Permanent Court of Arbitration and consisting of international law experts from Finland, Spain and the United States.

The suit is in addition to another $500 million claim brought by a Canadian wind energy company, Trillium, that also had its deals nixed due to the ban that was put in place five years ago.
But Windstream might have a stronger case, as it has obtained evidence including excerpts from hundreds of emails sent between government officials.
One example is from spring 2010, a year before the moratorium, when the Canadian government considered establishing an “exclusion zone” that would have forced all windmills to be built five kilometers inland, making them unable to harness wind coming off the lake, according to Canada.com.
“We are to work backwards from the number to provide a rationale for it,” reads one email the Ministry of Natural Resources Director Eric Boysen sent to a staffer. “This can’t be about aesthetics, or there will be a similar cry for exclusion zones on land.”
In a separate message, Boysen admits that the exclusion zone might not really be up to snuff.
“The real challenge now begins,” he wrote. “Although we have messaged to (the Ministry of the Environment) that there is nothing in our data to support an exclusion zone, they continue to want to base this on ecological reasons.”
Although it long predates his election, a large judgement for blocking a sustainable energy project could be embarrassing for the new Canadian administration of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a committed environmentalist.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/05/12/environmentally-friendly-canadian-govt-could-face-475m-payout-for-blocking-us-wind-energy-company.html 

WhoseYourWolfie wrote:

TRUST THOSE ultra-Right Wing troglodyte stirrers at Fox to look for any way to attack that communistic spawn-of-Satan new government north of the border...

JUST HOW should the months-old Trudeau guvm'nt feel in any way "embarrassed" by a decision made under the previous Harper regime ?

THIS whole kerfuffle smells a lot like the Murdoch_controlled Fox's sister News Corp's efforts at sabotaging and bad-mouthing the Labor Party and Greens down here..

Original Quill wrote:What evidence is there, 4EVA, that the refusal/obfuscation in the Keystone Pipeline matter is linked to this moratorium of a wind farm on Lake Ontario?

They've found evidence in the form of emails that the freeze is aesthetic rather than environmental, but linking it to retaliation for refusal to give approval on Keystone??

While some might see this is just a 'one stick pony political issue' against the PM...I have serious concerns that the greater push to thwart this was more due to our POTUS derailing the KeystoneXL pipeline to Texas for that shale sand crude oil. Crude oil and politics are equally BIG BUSINESS in Canada...   

4EVER2 wrote:

Original Quill wrote:What evidence is there, 4EVA, that the refusal/obfuscation in the Keystone Pipeline matter is linked to this moratorium of a wind farm on Lake Ontario?

They've found evidence in the form of emails that the freeze is aesthetic rather than environmental, but linking it to retaliation for refusal to give approval on Keystone??

Only my 'husband's family' and their long history with the Canadian Crude Oil industry - the region that the Shale Sand Oil covers - he was a petroleum engineer for the RBOC {royal bank of Canada} and

While some might see this is just a 'one stick pony political issue' against the PM...I have serious concerns that the greater push to thwart this was more due to our POTUS derailing the KeystoneXL pipeline to Texas for that shale sand crude oil. Crude oil and politics are equally BIG BUSINESS in Canada...   

That was what I stated ~~~ did you assume something else?

While the project was originally developed as a partnership between TransCanada Corporation and ConocoPhillips, TransCanada is now the sole owner of the Keystone Pipeline System, as TransCanada received regulatory approval on August 12, 2009 to purchase ConocoPhillips' interest.
Certain parties who have agreed to make volume commitments to the Keystone expansion to have the option to acquire up to a combined 15% equity ownership. One such company is Valero Energy Corporation. 

After a seven year review process, on November 6, 2015, President Obama denied the required presidential permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline. On January 6th, 2016, TransCanada challenged that denial by announcing it has taken legal action under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and also initiated Constitutional litigation against the U.S. Administration.
For more information please visit the Keystone XL Pipeline website at Keystone-XL.com.

Original Quill wrote:Still, there is no evidence that preventing the wind farm on Lake Ontario, though perhaps a bit deceitful, is in retaliation for what has happened to Keystone.  At least I've seen no connection yet.