Weeks after TC Energy officially terminated the Keystone XL pipeline because President Biden revoked a key permit, the company announced it is seeking billion in damages from the U.S. government.
On Friday, the company behind the project filed a Notice of Intent with the State Department, Office of the Legal Adviser, “to initiate a legacy North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) claim under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to recover economic damages resulting from the revocation of the Keystone XL Project’s Presidential Permit.”
TC Energy is seeking over $15 billion due to the U.S. government’s “breach of its NAFTA obligations.” In pulling the order, Biden said that “leaving the Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would not be consistent with my Administration’s economic and climate imperatives.”
According to Keystone XL, the construction project would have directly created more than 10,000 U.S. “high-quality jobs and local contracting opportunities.” A State Department study referenced by Fox News put the number even higher at 26,100 jobs with the inclusion of indirect jobs. The Biden administration is also facing a lawsuit from a coalition of 21 states, led by Texas and Montana, which argues “Biden does not have the unilateral authority to change energy policy that the U.S. Congress has set,” Reuters reports.
“Since his first day in office, President Biden has made it his mission to undo all the progress of the previous administration, with complete disregard for the Constitutional limits on his power,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “His decision to revoke the pipeline permit is not only unlawful but will also devastate the livelihoods of thousands of workers, their families, and their communities.”
