TC Energy’s US$15B Keystone XL claim thrown out by trade tribunal

TC Energy Corp.'s ill-fated Keystone XL pipeline has suffered a major blow after a trade tribunal decision that tossed out its claim to US$15 billion in damages.

TC Energy Corp.’s ill-fated Keystone XL pipeline has suffered a major blow after a trade tribunal decision that tossed out its claim to US$15 billion in damages.

The Calgary-based company launched the claim in 2021 to seek compensation after its proposed Keystone XL pipeline project was scuttled by U.S. President Joe Biden.

The claim was made under the legacy rules tied to the old North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, because of what TC Energy said was the U.S. government’s breach of its free trade obligations.

Keystone XL was a proposed crude oil transportation pipeline which would have carried oil from the oilsands of northern Alberta to the major U.S. crude storage hub at Cushing, Okla. and then on to Gulf Coast refineries.

But the project became a lightning rod for controversy and environmental and Indigenous activism, in addition to being subject to government flip-flops.

TC Energy first proposed the Keystone XL project under the Obama administration, which ultimately rejected it on environmental grounds. U.S. President Donald Trump revived the project, but Biden then killed it again by revoking the pipeline’s permit on his first day as president in 2021.

In its claim, TC Energy said it was due more than US$15 billion in damages as a result of the years it spent navigating legal and regulatory challenges before the Biden administration officially spiked the project by revoking a key permit.

But the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal sided with the U.S. government in the matter last Friday by refusing to hear TC Energy’s case.