US wins lawsuit to cancel $15 billion in Keystone loan

The United States has emerged victorious in a $15 billion arbitration brought by TC Energy over the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline, with an international tribunal dismissing the claims on jurisdictional grounds.

In an award issued Friday, the tribunal, composed of presiding arbitrator Alexis Mourre and secondary arbitrators Henri C. Alvarez and John R. Crook, accepted a jurisdictional objection filed by the U.S. court. Alvarez, the arbitrator appointed by TC Energy, dissented.

US wins $15 billion Keystone project cancellation lawsuit: Court dismisses claims

The court found it lacked jurisdiction because the underlying trade agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), had expired when the Keystone project permit was revoked by the Biden administration in early 2021. NAFTA was replaced by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in mid-2020.

Although the award was not made public as of Monday morning, a TC Energy spokesperson confirmed the news in an email to Law360.