- The Guardian
- Issue #2125
ExxonMobil is using Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) in an Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) to sue the Netherlands over the early shutdown of gas production in the Groningen province. The claim has been made despite the fact that the Netherlands and other EU countries have withdrawn from the treaty. ExxonMobil is a US company, but the investment was made through a Belgian subsidiary, taking advantage of the fact that the withdrawal does not take effect until September 2025. Filed with the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the lawsuit could result in billions of euros in compensation claims.
ExxonMobil has been extracting gas from Groningen for decades, causing seismic activity that has damaged homes and infrastructure. In response, the Dutch government decided to accelerate the closure of the field, originally set for 2030, in order to protect public safety. While this move aligns with broader climate goals, it directly conflicts with ExxonMobil’s financial interests. The company argues that the decision violates its investment rights under the ECT, which protects foreign investments in the energy sector, including the right to sue governments over policies that harm profits.
The ECT allows corporations like ExxonMobil to use ISDS to bypass national courts. This mechanism has come under growing scrutiny as companies use it to block or weaken climate policies, prompting the withdrawal of EU countries.
ExxonMobil’s lawsuit is emblematic of a larger issue: as governments move to meet climate targets, oil and gas companies increasingly turn to legal avenues to protect their profits.
“For sixty years, ExxonMobil has profited from gas extraction in the Netherlands, resulting in earthquakes and damages to homes. This has disrupted the lives of many Groningers, but the companies that caused this damage are dodging damage repairs. That ExxonMobil is now filing a claim for losses shows a total lack of moral sense,” said Bart-Jaap, a senior researcher in the Netherlands Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations.
The rising number of compensation claims under the ECT poses a growing challenge to the global transition to a low-carbon economy. ExxonMobil’s move is a stark reminder of how global trade agreements can be weaponised by corporations to safeguard profits, even at the expense of public safety and the environment.
PARASITE OF THE WEEK: is Donald Trump who the most reactionary and far-right sectors of the capitalist class have teamed up to back as a wannabe dictator who’s managed to assemble a mass movement of contradictory forces behind him – outright racists and misogynists along with millions of disaffected and confused members of the working class. It’s the classic formula for fascism.
But beyond the race hatred, the anti-immigrant hostility, the misogyny, and the homophobic/transphobic attacks, what else motivates significant blocs of voters to go over to the fascist side?
Georgi Dimitrov, in Against Fascism and War, notes:
“What is the source of the influence of fascism over the masses? Fascism is able to attract the masses because it demagogically appeals to their most urgent needs and demands. Fascism not only inflames prejudices that are deeply ingrained in the masses, but also plays upon the better sentiments of the masses, on their sense of justice and sometimes even on their revolutionary traditions. Fascism aims at the most unbridled exploitation of the masses but it approaches them with the most artful anti-capitalist demagogy, taking advantage of the deep hatred of the working people against the plundering bourgeoisie, the banks, the trusts, and financial magnates.”
Trump has spent years portraying himself as a champion of those left out of the post-industrial economy, as a voice for workers who saw their jobs outsourced and their communities devastated.
