TransCanada Corp. says it intends to file a $15-billion claim under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement in response to the Obama administration’s rejection of the company’s proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
The White House’s decision to deny a Presidential Permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline to transport oil from Alberta’s oilsands to refineries in the southern United States “was arbitrary and unjustified,” the company said Wednesday in a statement.
TransCanada also has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Federal Court in Houston, Texas, asserting that the President’s decision to deny construction of Keystone XL exceeded his power under the U.S. Constitution, the company said.
While announcing his rejection of the pipeline from the White House on Nov 6, 2015, President Barack Obama said Keystone “will not serve the national interests of the United States.”
Obama said the State Department rejected the proposed $8-billion Keystone XL pipeline scheme, saying it would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to the U.S. economy.
“In its decision, the U.S. State Department acknowledged the denial was not based on the merits of the project,” said the statement by TransCanada. “Rather, it was a symbolic gesture based on speculation about the perceptions of the international community regarding the Administration’s leadership on climate change and the President’s assertion of unprecedented, independent powers.”
TransCanada says it expects to record estimated $2.5 to $2.9 billion write-down as result of the denial.
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