The U.S. government is not liable to Canadian midstream company TC Energy’s $15 billion claim for the 2021 cancellation of the Keystone pipeline extension, an international panel of arbiters ruled 2-1 on July 12.

The arbiters for the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ruled that TC had no case for the international panel because the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), under which TC planned the pipeline extension, was no longer in effect when the Biden administration canceled the project, the Well News reported.

TC Energy’s attempt to build the pipeline became a political football when the project was first proposed in 2008. The original plan was to connect terminals in Hardisty, Alberta and Steele City, Nebraska.

Environmental and Native American groups opposed the plan, which the Obama administration delayed in 2015. The Trump administration rescinded the delay in January 2017 as one of its first acts in office.

The Biden administration responded by canceling the project’s permit in January 2021 in one of its first acts of office. TC Energy then canceled the project and went forward with a $15 billion claim against the U.S. under NAFTA.

At the time of the Biden’s decision, the U.S. and Canada were operating under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced NAFTA in 2020.

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