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Alberta's multi-billion $ public investment in KXL takes another step toward a write-off. It leaves me wondering: what role did an erroneous understanding of "indemnification of political risk" play in getting us here? #ableg


There is a logic to public investment to indemnify a project against political risk in some situations: where the government making the investment has some control or influence over that risk.

It serves the same function as a change in law provision in a contract with government: the government accepts the losses of the prospective policy change that creates the risk. The losses are allocated to the party who can best avoid them.

The federal government's TMX investment is one example. The major impediments apparent were largely under Ottawa's control: adequate environmental assessment and adequate FN consultation.

By making the investment, Ottawa either carries out the necessary actions to allow TMX to proceed, or suffers the losses of failing to do so.
Pleased to learn that a federal criminal grand jury's subpoena to Twitter to get my personal info was quashed by the judge, despite my association with sketchy accounts like @Popehat and @associatesmind, whom the court refused to do any favors.
(Thread ...)


This started in 2017 with a Twitter thread about the interesting case of John Rivello, who was indicted for assault with "a deadly weapon, to-wit: a Tweet", where the tweet contained an allegedly seizure-inducing GIF and was sent to a known epileptic, @kurteichenwald.


Someone replied to the thread with a sarcastic dig at an FBI agent involved in the case (Nathan Hopp), and then someone else replied to that with a smiley-face emoji.
https://t.co/RcOphROvOP
https://t.co/X48C4ORZsI


Because that last, single-emoji reply was by someone the FBI was investigating (in a matter completely unrelated to Rivello), the feds reacted by demanding Twitter hand over all its information on everyone in the thread (for the suspicious act of being replied to by randos).


Twitter, through @PerkinsCoieLLP partner John K. Roche, admirably fought this subpoena on behalf of its users, three times: before a USMJ, then a USDJ, then the MJ again. The result was this sealed 35-page opinion (now