The energy company behind the now-abandoned Keystone XL pipeline project is seeking $15 billion in damages from the Biden administration after the president revoked the permit for the project on his first day in office.
TC Energy said they had filed a notice of intent with the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser it “will be seeking to recover more than $15 billion in damages that it has suffered as a result of the U.S. Government’s breach of its NAFTA obligations.”
The company claims President Joe Biden’s revocation of the permit allowing the Canadian company to build the pipeline carrying oil into America violates the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement.
TC Energy officially announced the project was canceled last month.
The pipeline was to transport crude from the oil sand fields of western Canada to Steele City, Nebraska.
The project had stalled under the Obama administration, and construction on the 1,200-mile pipeline started in 2020 under the Trump administration. Former President Donald Trump authorized the permit in early 2017.
On January 20, 2021, Biden canceled the permit for the project, citing concerns that burning oil sands crude makes climate change worse.
This is not the only legal challenge the Biden administration is facing about the pipeline. In March, a couple dozen states filed a lawsuit saying the cross-border permit is a “regulation of interstate and international commerce,” and as such, should be decided by Congress.
