Remember a company named Harken? Thought it went away?

[Pallas180]

Well , no it didn't...and it, he, and his corporate buddies are threatening little countries that might have oil, with the power of
the presidency behind them:

Remember a company named Harken? Remember Senator Torricelli?

Well Harken hasn't gone away ( I wonder who's running it now, Baker?)

This is long...but an eye opener -

at http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Mar04/Engler-Martinez0330.htm


Oiled Again
Free Trade Threatens Costa Rican Environmental Protections

by Mark Engler and Nadia Martinez
www.dissidentvoice.org
March 30, 2004
First Published in Grist Magazine


When most people think of Costa Rica, they don't imagine oil rigs stationed off the pristine beaches. Nor do they envision pit mines cutting into the cloud-forested mountains. But, despite the country's noteworthy conservation efforts, its scenic vistas and extraordinary biodiversity have faced real threats from extractive industries -- and are now endangered by international trade deals.

Nearly two years ago, Costa Rican nationals and admirers thought they'd been given reason to rest easy. In May 2002, responding to a large-scale mobilization of the country's environmentalists, President Abel Pacheco announced a moratorium on oil exploration and open-pit mining in Costa Rica. Legislators are currently working to give congressional backing to the executive order and repeal laws that expose the country to extractive industries.

-snip-

Harken Energy, a Texas-based oil company with close ties to U.S. President George W. Bush, had previously obtained rights to search for crude in Costa Rica. Before failing an environmental impact review in February 2002, it had planned to drill offshore. Now Harken is demanding that the Costa Rican government pay upwards of $12 million in reparations for its aborted exploits.

-snip-

But that's not the last word on the subject. Even as the company contemplates sending the case back into international courts, the Bush administration is brokering a treaty that threatens to make the Harken suit into something more than an obscure legal grudge match. That treaty is the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Let Us Harken Back

In 1994, the Costa Rican legislative assembly passed a hydrocarbons law as part of a series of measures designed to comply with a Structural Adjustment Program sponsored by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The law opened the way for foreign corporations to win concessions on oil exploration. Subsequently, a little-known Louisiana-based company named MKJ Xploration successfully bid to prospect in several blocks on the nation's Caribbean coast. The company later sold its Costa Rican interests to Harken Energy.

Area residents, fishers, indigenous groups, and environmentalists learned of the deal by reading about it in the newspapers. They quickly realized that lack of local consultation was only the first of the plan's many problems. Offshore drilling, they argued, would damage coral reefs and mangrove swamps and threaten endangered sea life. They waged a prolonged battle against the deal, and a national board came to take their side. It ruled that Harken's plan was not permissible under the country's environmental impact laws. Shortly thereafter, in denying Harken's appeal, the board cited more than 50 reasons why the company's impact statement did not make the grade.

Harken was furious. Arguing that it had already invested more than $12 million in the deal, it turned to international investment treaties to sue Costa Rica -- for $57 billion.

-snip-

In January of this year, former U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) traveled to San Jose to negotiate on behalf of Harken. At the time, the Costa Rican government appeared grateful to be eliminating the specter of a costly international lawsuit. Environmental groups, however, greeted Torricelli with protests outside the Environment Ministry. They argued that the negotiations were a form of "oil extortion" -- that Harken was punishing the country for enforcing its environmental laws.

-snip-

For opponents of CAFTA, the Harken case is a paradigmatic example of how corporations use international agreements to bully countries into dropping environmental protections. CAFTA's investor protections, which are similar to NAFTA's notorious Chapter 11, allow companies to bring complaints directly to international tribunals. Under the new agreement, Costa Rica would not be able to rebuff efforts to bypass its national courts. Instead, it would have to allow deliberations about Harken's astronomical $57 billion "compensation claim" to move forward on the international level.

-much more, click at top -

[johnaries]

1. OMG! Can we kick this up so MSM takes notice?

The MSM were just getting involved into the question "did GW's Dad bail him out from the SEC investigation" when, guess what, Iraq took over the MSM.

[pantouflard]

2. Anyone know how to get in touch with Greg Palast? Molly Ivins?

She would love this. Let's just send it to everyone we can think of, like we do with all the crap we discover/uncover.

DUers, start your email engines!

[underseasurveyor]

3. Moore Michael Moore material

;-) for the sequel of F/911. Greg Palast might be a good one. He loves corporations, especially dirty, nasty, oily ones :evilgrin: I'll have to see if my niece is still working for Palast.