The
The claim was made under the legacy rules tied to the old North American Free Trade Agreement, or
Keystone XL was a proposed crude oil transportation pipeline, roughly 1,900-kilometres long, which would have carried oil from the oilsands of northern
But the project became a lightning rod for controversy and environmental and Indigenous activism, in addition to being subject to government flip-flops.
In its claim,
But the
The tribunal said the legacy provisions tied to the old
Biden revoked Keystone XL's permit a year after
In an email Tuesday,
“We are both disappointed and frustrated with the Tribunal’s decision to deny our right to bring a legacy
“This ruling does not align with our expectations and views of the plain interpretation of the protections
The tribunal's decision was hailed by environmental activists, who interpreted it as evidence that fossil fuel companies will not be able to successfully sue governments for policy changes made for the good of the environment or to mitigate the effects of climate change.
"This is an important precedent, because governments need to be able to take action to protect people (from climate change) and corporations shouldn't be able to sue them for it," said
"The threat of these types of lawsuits has actually been giving governments cold feet about taking bold action (on climate) and I think we should recognize this decision as saying, 'full speed ahead.'"
But
"This undermines certainty for industry, and they will be less likely on the whole to invest in long-term projects," she said.
"What (this decision says) is, you don't know what the political winds will bring in 10 years, or in five years, but there'll be no protection for the investment decisions you make today."
Exner-Pirot added that while she's not surprised by the tribunal's decision to reject
"I'm guessing that for them it was some kind of line in the sand," she said.
"For a company, they can't have these political decisions affecting their business, this flip-flopping between left and right. I'm sure they felt that at some point, someone had to say, 'This is not the way to go.'"
The government of
In 2020, the
On Tuesday, a spokesman for
"As to the arbitration decision on TC Energy’s claim, we are reviewing the tribunal’s decision for information purposes, but Alberta Energy will not comment on a third party’s legal proceeding," said spokesman
This report by The Canadian Press was first published
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