title:  TransCanada Officially Files $15 Billion Lawsuit Against U.S. For Rejecting KXL Pipline
text: TransCanada is officially suing the United States because President Obama rejected their proposal to build the Keystone XL pipeline last November.Reuters reports: TransCanada Corp is formally requesting arbitration over U.S. President Barack Obama s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline, seeking $15 billion in damages, the company said in legal papers dated Friday.Obama rejected the Canadian company s cross-border crude oil pipeline last November, seven years after it was first proposed, saying it would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to the U.S. economy. TransCanada believes that they are owed damages due to provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Last January, TransCanada made it known that they intended to sue the United States. In response, Sierra Club s executive director Michael Brune released a statement in response to TransCanada s announcement. In the statement, Brune both lambasted TransCanada and urged people to reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal that would radically expand corporation s abilities to sue nations in situations similar to this. TransCanada s attempt to make American taxpayers hand over more than $15 billion because the company s dirty Keystone XL pipeline was rejected shows exactly why NAFTA was wrong and why the even more dangerous and far-reaching Trans-Pacific Partnership must be stopped in its tracks. The TPP would empower thousands of new firms operating in the U.S, including major polluters, to follow in TransCanada s footsteps and undermine our critical climate safeguards in private trade tribunals. Today, we have a prime example of how polluter-friendly trade deals threaten our efforts to tackle the climate crisis, spotlighting the need for a new model of trade model that supports rather than undermines climate action. We urge our members of Congress to learn from this historic moment and commit to reject the TPP. Over the course of the Democratic primary, both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton spoke out against the TPP. This latest move from TransCanada proves exactly why we need to demand lawmakers reject the TPP. Things right now are not looking good. Members of the Democratic National Convention drafting committee just voted down an amendment to the Party s platform introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) that would make it the Party s mission to reject the TPP.Featured image from Andrew Burton/Getty Images