TransCanada initiates legal action over Keystone XL refusal

The company’s lawsuit in federal court in Houston does not seek legal damages but wants the permit denial invalidated and seeks a ruling that no future president can block construction.

The Obama administration decided in October to deny the Canadian company a permit to construct a key section of the pipeline across the US-Canada border, ruling it would harm the fight against climate change.

TransCanada is also seeking $15bn in damages in sunk costs for the project, in a separate claim under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

North of the United States border, TransCanada’s Energy East project is steaming ahead, and is arguably the favorite pipeline project to be built.

The firm also said the pipeline did not receive the same level of scrutiny as previous pipeline projects.

Communications Workers of America said TransCanada’s Nafta claim provides a case study in how the TPP would give thousands more companies a new mechanism to challenge USA laws and regulations.

President Barack Obama rejected the project in November, saying it would not serve the national interests of the United States.

TransCanada on Wednesday said the U.S. State Department denied the project a permit based not on the merits of the project, but on “speculation about the perceptions of the worldwide community”.

TransCanada’s proposed pipeline would go from Canada through Montana and South Dakota to Nebraska, where it would connect with existing pipelines to carry more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day to refineries along the Gulf Coast. “We do not comment on pending litigation”, a State Department representative said Wednesday night.

It seems as though TransCanada Corp. won’t take “no” for an answer for its Keystone XL pipeline. Still, the 1,900-kilometre pipeline, which has been in limbo for more than seven years, has at times been an irritant in relations between both countries, with former prime minister Stephen Harper at one point calling the project’s approval a “no-brainer”. The company said it expects to record around 2.5 billion to 2.9 billion Canadian dollars in after-tax write-downs in its fourth-quarter results.

It was passionately opposed by environmental groups, who circled the White House in protests and whose leaders were arrested on the premises.