Company behind Keystone XL pipeline seeks $15B in damages from the Biden administration

The Canadian company behind the now-defunct Keystone XL pipeline is pursuing $15 billion in damages from the U.S. government for President Biden’s decision to pull the plug on the massive infrastructure project.

TC Energy announced Friday that it has filed a Notice of Intent to make a legacy claim under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as part of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement for damages “resulting from the revocation of the Keystone XL Project’s Presidential Permit.”

“TC Energy will be seeking to recover more than US$15 billion in damages that it has suffered as a result of the U.S. Government’s breach of its NAFTA obligations,” the Calgary-based company said in a statement. “The Notice of Intent was filed with the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Legal Adviser.”

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Last month, TC Energy ended its 13-year-old battle to build the $9 billion addition running 830,000 barrels daily of crude oil from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast after Mr. Biden rescinded the 2017 cross-border permit as part of his climate agenda on Jan. 20, his first day in office.

Construction already had begun on the 1,200-mile segment from Hardisty, Alberta, to Steele City, Nebraska, where it was slated to hook up with the existing Keystone pipeline system delivering oil to refineries in the Houston area.

The Alberta government, which had agreed to invest $1.5 billion in the project, suffered a $1.3 billion loss with the pipeline’s cancellation, according to the CBC.

In May, a coalition of 21 Republican attorneys general sued the Biden administration for its “unconstitutional and illegitimate attempt to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline,” arguing that the power to regulate foreign and interstate commerce belongs to the Congress.

Democrats and environmentalists cheered Mr. Biden’s order, citing the impact of fossil fuels on increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, while Republicans said the cancellation killed an estimated 11,000 direct construction jobs and 42,000 indirect jobs at a loss of $2 billion in earnings.

In May, TC Energy reported a $1.1 billion first-quarter net loss after taking a $2.2 billion after-tax asset impairment charge stemming from the Keystone XL permit cancellation.