TC Energy Corporation, the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline project, is making an effort to recoup more than $15 billion in damages from the United States for revoking the permit for the project. The corporation claims that the US government violated its free-trade obligations after the Biden administration revoked the project’s permit on the president’s first day in the White House.

The administration’s decision marked a win for environmentalists after a decade, who asserted that the climate crisis would worsen due to the project, which aimed to carry oil from the tar sands of Canada into the United States. To compensate for the economic damages from the project’s revocation, on July 2, 2021, TC Energy (TRP) filed a Notice of Intent with the US State Department to initiate a legacy NAFTA claim under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The permit cancelation, according to TC Energy, would “directly lead to the layoff of thousands of union workers.” Following the news of TC Energy suing the US administration, a fire broke out in the Gulf of Mexico due to a pipeline burst. “We’re just not treating [climate change] like the planetary emergency it is,” Emily Atkin, founder of the Heated newsletter and MSNBC contributor, said in an interview. “Right now, everyone should be a climate reporter, and if you’re not a climate reporter right now, you will be, whether you realize it or not” Atkin added.