Company Behind Keystone XL Pipeline Seeks $15B Damages After Biden Nixes Project
“filed a notice of intent with the State Department, claiming they suffered the massive loss ‘as a result of the U.S. Government’s breach of its NAFTA obligations.'”
The Canadian-based company that developed the Keystone XL Pipeline is fighting back in court after Biden ordered to end the economy-boosting project. The company wants $15 billion in damages from the US.
TC Energy on Friday filed a notice of intent with the State Department, claiming they suffered the massive loss “as a result of the U.S. Government’s breach of its NAFTA obligations.”
President Joe Biden cancelled the pipeline’s border crossing permit in January due to environmental concerns — and last month TC Energy pulled the plug on the project after Canadian officials failed to convince the president to reverse his decision.
The partially-constructed pipeline would have transported crude from western Canada to Nebraska.
The project was announced in 2008 and stalled during the Obama administration.
But it was revived by former President Donald Trump last year.
The firm filed its Notice of Intent with the US State Department, initiating a legacy claim under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
To recover economic damages from the project’s cancellation, TC Energy (TRP) on Friday filed a Notice of Intent with the US State Department to initiate a legacy NAFTA claim under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the company said in a statement.
When the permit cancellation was announced, TC Energy warned that it would “directly lead to the layoff of thousands of union workers.”
The Oval Office occupant will also have some explaining to do about the number of jobs lost as a result of his actions. The TC Energy lawsuit follows news that the GOP has demanded its version of an economic impact statement.
That announcement came just hours after Republican senators demanded the Biden administration account for the number of jobs killed by the president’s decision to cancel the 1,200 mile-long pipeline.
The pipeline, which would have carried 800,000 barrels of oil a day from the tar sands of Canada into the U.S. The pipeline’s construction was first delayed in 2015 under Barack Obama before being revived under Donald Trump in 2017.
In related news, I suspect many Americans have started to connect the dots between Biden’s pen and their current economic pain as it relates to rising gas prices.
… “For people who understand it as a supply and demand issue, they don’t see the president as responsible for the rise,” said Laurel Harbridge-Yong of Northwestern University, the primary author of the 2016 study on gas prices and presidential approval. “It’s not like the president can put his finger on the button and make gas prices go up or down.”
For the prices to be a liability for Biden, Republicans must do a better job connecting them to his policies, said David Winston, a Republican pollster and strategist who specializes in public opinion on pocketbook issues.
“It’s more than just what is the raw cost of gasoline? Has he done things policy-wise that has made the cost go up, not because of the ebb and flow of gas prices?” he said. “If people decide that’s the connection they’re going to make, that’s the problem.”
But if gasoline prices remain high into the fall, voters could start to hold Biden responsible.
I disagree entirely with Harbridge-Yong. Biden did put his finger on the button and pressed it well and hard.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Wow, just another way Biden has screwed the taxpayer. Heads up, Bumbles Biden is still coming for your wallets, whether you’re smart enough to know it or not.
WOKE TILL WE’RE BROKE
– $ 15 Billion and 15,000 Jobs LOST due Cancelled Keystone Pipeline
– $ 30 Million Damages – NYC Cancelled Trump’s contracts.
– $200 Million – Biden Cancelled construction of wall on Mexico border
– $100+ Billion to Bailout Dem-controlled Cities and States
– $300+ Billion for Climate Change
Virtue signaling with bankrupt the USA.
The virtue signal is, I think, a side benefit. It is always about money. How is that fuel being moved without the pipeline?
Rail mostly, so perhaps we should be comparing Buffett’s bank records to Dementia Josef Stolen’s.
I hate having to pay for this, but I think that they have a valid claim. Maybe we can charge all members of the Biden Crime Syndicate, and seize all their ill gotten gains , to cover part of the damages?
Let’s be very clear as to who TC Energy is. TransCanada who has purchased a number of US-based gas pipeline systems over the years.
In any project of this scope, the parties enter into an elaborate set of contracts to define who bears the risk of the project not being completed and who “pays the mortgage” during the life of the facility if it is built. What is happening here is that TC Energy is going after Uncle Sam’s deep pocket instead of its affiliates, bankers, and customers who signed up to carry this risk.
True, but that does not mean that TC Energy has not been damaged by a capricious and arbitrary decision of the US Government. Remember, they all ready had approval. The ONLY thing that changed was Biden came in with a different political agenda. Biden made it clear that this decision was based on politics. He cancelled it as entered the Oval office. I don’t know if they have a winning case under law – but they were clearly damaged by a political decision – not a decision of an unbiased government.
Why should those people pay, when the damage was caused entirely by the US government? It’s not as if there was any valid reason why the permit should be canceled. It was a completely arbitrary and capricious decision by the incoming administration, causing massive damage with no benefit at all. So the USA should pay for it.
Let’s suppose that Biden had been sneaky and found an environmental “violation” during the construction and used that as a pretext to cancel. Or let’s suppose that he got Congress to pass a $100 per barrel tax on this particular grade of crude oil. TC Energy would then trigger its force majeure clause to escape most of the loss.
When a TransCanada affiliate Iroquois sought to build a gas line down through New York and Conn. to Long Island, opponents monitored the construction carefully and discovered that they were using large rocks to refill the pipeline trench — a violation of the environmental conditions. This resulted in the first criminal prosecution under the Natural Gas Act of 1935 and the President of Iroquois being subject to house confinement with an ankle bracelet for a year.
Presidential permits to cross the border are issued subject to revocation. That is why instead of seeking judicial review of Biden’s discretionary action, TC Energy is dusting off NAFTA to make a claim.
Typo: Natural Gas Act of 1938. (Federal regulation of interstate electric power started in 1935.)
If he’d actually found a violation, then it would still be wrong but at least he’d have an excuse. Here he has none.
Your Iroquois example is BS, and it was a wrong done. But unfortunately many wrongs are done within the law.
First of all the permit should not be up to the president’s discretion. That’s a bad law in the first place. But even given that it is the law, I doubt the president’s decision is allowed to be arbitrary and capricious. He ought to need at least a rational basis for it, just like any regulatory act by the executive (which is the president).
Well, this was certainly the rationale used by several judges to block various Trump executive actions.
There was benefit. There is ALWAYS benefit to someone in a move like this – You just have to follow themoney. Start with Biden and the DNC.
Follow Buffett, his railroad is transporting the tar oil and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Well, unfortunately, the government only has what it has stolen from the citizens.
Those citizens elected the government, and are therefore morally responsible for its decisions. When the government harms someone on the public’s behalf, it is proper that the public compensate the victim.
Yes, the people get the government they deserve. They are collectively responsible for their government.
It seems to me that you have not made an argument that the US government bears no liability, but that the liability is owed to the project’s underwriters, and not to TC Energy.
That’s rather unlikely as the current occupant will never be asked about it.
That economic impact statement should also include the persons and companies that benefited financially from the pipeline’s cancellation (i.e. Biden Campaign donor Warren Buffett), and what will happen to the oil that was formerly destined for the US now that the pipeline won’t be completed.
My understanding is that it will be piped to the west coast and shipped to China.
The vile and totalitarian Dhimmi-crats have the “anti-Midas” touch — everything that they touch predictably turns to excrement.