CALGARY (660 NEWS) — The battle over Keystone XL continues after 21 U.S. states have issued a legal challenge of U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to revoke the Presidential permit for the pipeline.
The pushback continues after Biden made the decision on his first day in office.
Now when it comes to Alberta and what this means for the province, Premier Jason Kenney thanked the Governors and Attorney Generals for making this move.
“We have been in ongoing discussions with a number of those states. (On Wednesday) I was on the phone with the Governor of Montana, last week I spoke to his attorney general — who I believe led this effort — we’ve been in touch with officials in Texas and many other U.S. states. And we’ve been encouraging their efforts this is their own initiative,” Kenney said.
The pipeline is already crossing the border and already has support from American citizens and diplomats.
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“The vast majority of Americans support this project and certainly all of the state governments along the pipeline route do as well. And we’ll continue to co-operate with those and other state governments,” Kenney added.
So, what does this mean for Alberta and the money invested into the pipeline? Kenney says they are analyzing all of their options.
“We’ve not made a final determination. We are in ongoing discussions with TC Energy about that. We retained legal expert advice in the United States on our options two or three months ago and they continue to refine their legal analysis about the best way forward,” he said.
Kenney adds they are in a good position to win this challenge because of the U.S-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
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“We do believe Alberta has a strong case to make under the Investor Protection Provisions of Section 11 in the North American Free Trade Agreement that were grandfathered and brought forward to the Canada U.S. Mexico Agreement.
“Basically, to put it into layman’s terms, what it says is that if a government approves something and an investment is made on that basis government cannot then go back — retroactively — and change the rules. And if it does then it owes compensation to the investor,” Kenney said.
The premier along with the Minister of Energy who provided a statement said they will continue to monitor the progress of this latest court action in the U.S.
