Company behind Keystone XL seeks $15B in damages from US

[OnlinePoker]

The company behind the now-abandoned Keystone XL pipeline hopes to obtain more than $15 billion from the U.S. government, alleging damages from President Biden’s revocation of its permit for the project.

TC Energy announced in a Friday press release that it had filed a notice of intent with the State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser to “initiate a legacy North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) claim under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.”

The company, which announced last month that it was officially scrapping the pipeline project after Biden revoked a key permit on his first day in the Oval Office, said that it is seeking compensation for losses "suffered as a result of the U.S. Government’s breach of its NAFTA obligations."

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/561535-company-behind-keystone-xl-seeks-15b-in-damages-from-us
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It will be interesting to see the results of this, but I expect it will drag on for years.

[Wounded Bear]

1. I hope this suit drags out as long as the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska...

[Sneederbunk]

2. Privatize the profits. Socialize the losses.

[MichMan]

3. They may very well have a very good case

Based on the original government approval, they spent vast sums of money building it just to have the next administration prohibiting it.

No different really then a city approving a building permit for a new home, so the homeowner starts construction, and he next regime negates the permit and demands it be torn down. In both cases, it was not the fault of the owners that the government changed it's mind.

[Disaffected]

5. Exactly.

TC Energy suffered massive losses as a result of the US gov't reneging on its permit. Whatever the merits or otherwise of the pipeline itself, the company deserves to be compensated. How much compensation is the only remaining question.

[marble falls]

6. The US government changed it's mind after it became clear what a devil's brew it took ...

... make oil sand pumpable through a pipeline. Let alone, Canadian law won't allow that shit to be refined in Canada.

Keystone can go pound .... sand.

[karynnj]

7. However, there was a likelihood - even in the Obama years - that economics itself would "cancel" it

I am not a lawyer, but it would seem that they would have to prove that it cost them those billions of dollars that they would have earned. It would not be related to how much they spent over the years. In addition, there were still legal challenges - even in the Trump years - from the state of Nebraska and native Americans, it is not quite the open/shut decision you describe.

In addition, much of that money was spent in the Obama years. It looked like it might be approved in the first Obama term. Everything was pretty much set in the State Department when HRC left without issuing the decision. In the second term they reopened the comment process - and it was far less likely that Kerry would approve it. (Had he done so it would have been counter to his entire political life and would likely have hobbled him from being a key force in getting to the Paris Accords.) Obviously, at the end it would have been the President's decision, but the SoS being on the record as against it before he was nominated made it less likely.

This meant that they took a risk in doing the lower part that had been approved before they had approval for the entire pipeline. Obviously, their intent was that doing so created "facts on the ground. It was interesting that they did not press charges in 2015 when the decision was "no". I suspect that was because given that they never had approval for the whole thing, they could not complain that they were blindsided by the decision.

While Trump did approve, there were still some years of court cases that continued to delay what they could do. In addition, it is highly likely that as the country moves to cleaner energy, this product - for some of the dirtiest hard to process tar sands oil wil heve become non economic even had the entire thing have been approved in 2012 or 2013 and built.

[marble falls]

4. They'll get it right after Canadian mining companies clean up their cyanide disasters in the US.