<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><i class="">Two articles below…</i><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class=""><a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/canadas-alberta-province-files-trade-challenge-over-scrapped-keystone-xl-2022-02-09/" class="">https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/canadas-alberta-province-files-trade-challenge-over-scrapped-keystone-xl-2022-02-09/</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><h1 class="Heading__base___3qCIA2 Heading__heading_2___KxBDa9 Text__text___2vZwzq Text__dark-grey___1T5z1- Text__medium___3mY4FC Text__heading_2___24tFM-" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.14; font-size: 48px; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; font-family: knowledge-medium, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 500; color: rgb(64, 64, 64);">Canada's Alberta province files trade challenge over scrapped Keystone XL pipeline</h1><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class="">CALGARY, Alberta, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The Canadian province of Alberta on Wednesday formally initiated a trade challenge to recover its investment in the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which was scrapped in 2021 after the United States cancelled a key permit.<br class=""><br class="">Alberta, Canada's largest oil-producing province, had invested C$1.3 billion in the project and is seeking compensation from the United States through a legacy North American Free Trade Agreement claim, under the new Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement.<br class=""><br class="">Keystone XL would have carried 830,000 barrels per day of oil from Alberta to the U.S. Midwest, but was held up for a more than a decade by environmental opposition and regulatory hurdles, before U.S. President Joe Biden finally scuttled the project by revoking a presidential permit last year.<br class=""><br class="">The pipeline's developer TC Energy (TRP.TO) also filed a legacy NAFTA claim seeking more than $15 billion in damages last year. read more</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">"After examining all available options, we have determined a legacy claim is the best avenue to recover the government's investment in the Keystone XL project," Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage said in a statement.<br class=""><br class="">"We remain disappointed about the events and circumstances that led to the cancellation of this project.”</div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">=======</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class="" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><h1 class="" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 24pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: white;"><span class="" style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(156, 3, 58); text-transform: uppercase; font-weight: normal;">CANADIAN PROVINCE OF ALBERTA FILES NAFTA/USMCA NOTICE OF INTENT IN RELATION TO KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE DISPUTE WITH THE USA<o:p class=""></o:p></span></h1><div class="" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: white;"><span class="artdate"><b class=""><span class="" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(96, 98, 108);">Feb 09, 2022 |</span></b></span><span class="" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(96, 98, 108);"> <span class="authorname"><i class="">By Lisa Bohmer</i></span><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div class="" style="margin: 0in 11.25pt 0.0001pt 39.75pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: white;"><span class="" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(96, 98, 108);"> </span></div><div class="" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: white;"><span class="" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(96, 98, 108);">Case(s) discussed in this article: <a href="https://www.iareporter.com/arbitration-cases/transcanada-v-usa-1/" class="" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><span class="" style="color: rgb(156, 3, 58);">Transcanada v. USA (1)</span></a>,<a href="https://www.iareporter.com/arbitration-cases/tc-energy-transcanada-v-usa-2-2/" class="" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><span class="" style="color: rgb(156, 3, 58);">TC Energy & Transcanada v. USA (2)</span></a><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><p class="" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><span class="" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(96, 98, 108);">The Canadian province of Alberta has sent a notice of intent to the USA in relation to the US government’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline project, which was meant to transport crude oil from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries located in the USA.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><em class=""><span class="" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(96, 98, 108);">IAReporter</span></em><span class="" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(96, 98, 108);"> has confirmed that the notice of intent was filed on February 9, 2022.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><span class="" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(96, 98, 108);">In a <a href="https://www.alberta.ca/release.cfm?xID=81862B613462A-FE6C-F515-ABFDDD9B2520DC66" class="" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><span class="" style="color: rgb(156, 3, 58);">February 9, 2022 communication</span></a>, Alberta’s Minister of Energy, Sonya Savage, has stated that the province has “determined a legacy claim is the best avenue to recover the government’s investment in the Keystone XL project”.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><span class="" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(96, 98, 108);">Readers may recall that the disputed pipeline project has previously given rise to two arbitration claims against the USA: the <a href="https://www.iareporter.com/arbitration-cases/transcanada-v-usa-1/" class="" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><span class="" style="color: rgb(156, 3, 58);">2016 Transcanada v. USA</span></a> ICSID arbitration (which was discontinued in 2017, after the Trump administration issued required permits), and the pending <a href="https://www.iareporter.com/arbitration-cases/tc-energy-transcanada-v-usa-2-2/" class="" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><span class="" style="color: rgb(156, 3, 58);">TC Energy & Transcanada v. USA</span></a> ICSID case (which was brought by the pipeline companies in November of 2021, after the Biden administration revoked the pipeline’s permit earlier that year).<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><span class="" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(96, 98, 108);"><a href="https://www.iareporter.com/articles/province-of-alberta-confirms-intention-to-lodge-its-own-treaty-claim-against-the-usa-over-cancellation-of-keystone-xl-pipeline/" class="" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><span class="" style="color: rgb(156, 3, 58);">As we reported</span></a>, between these two arbitration claims, Alberta acquired a 1.5 billion USD equity interest in TC Energy. Following the cancellation of TC Energy’s permits by the current US administration, the province then <a href="https://www.iareporter.com/articles/province-of-alberta-confirms-intention-to-lodge-its-own-treaty-claim-against-the-usa-over-cancellation-of-keystone-xl-pipeline/" class="" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><span class="" style="color: rgb(156, 3, 58);">confirmed its intention</span></a> to lodge its own NAFTA legacy claim against the USA. According to Ms. Savage’s recent press statement, the province has now decided to follow up on its earlier threats, and it has “taken formal steps to initiate a legacy North American Free Trade Agreement claim”.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><span class="" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(96, 98, 108);">Notably, both the TC Energy arbitration and Alberta’s notice of intent rely on the NAFTA legacy provision of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (<a href="https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/files/agreements/FTA/USMCA/Text/14-Investment.pdf" class="" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><span class="" style="color: rgb(156, 3, 58);">USMCA</span></a>), which allows for submission of claims involving legacy investments for a period of three years following the USMCA’s entry into force in mid-2020. Canada thus stands to benefit from an investor-state arbitration mechanism from which it has purposefully opted out in the USMCA’s main provisions.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><span class="" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(96, 98, 108);">The claim promises to be an interesting one – if only because treaty-based claims by a political subdivision of one state against another state are a rare occurrence. While a similar situation occurred in the <a href="https://www.iareporter.com/articles/claim-against-ukraine-is-allowed-to-proceed-but-one-of-the-claimants-fails-to-clear-jurisdictional-hurdle/" class="" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><span class="" style="color: rgb(156, 3, 58);">Tatarstan et al. v. Ukraine </span></a>arbitration, the tribunal hearing that case <a href="https://www.iareporter.com/articles/claim-against-ukraine-is-allowed-to-proceed-but-one-of-the-claimants-fails-to-clear-jurisdictional-hurdle/" class="" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);"><span class="" style="color: rgb(156, 3, 58);">declined jurisdiction over a political subdivision of Russia, the Republic of Tatarstan</span></a> (while upholding jurisdiction over its co-claimants) – although the reasoning behind this 2019 award remains undisclosed.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="" style="margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;"><span class="" style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(96, 98, 108);">The identity of Alberta’s counsel in this potential NAFTA legacy claim remains unknown. (Readers may recall that in the pending TC Energy & Transcanada v. USA arbitration, the claimants are represented by Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C., while the USA relies on government counsel.)<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div class="" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p class=""> </o:p></div></div><br class=""><br class=""><div class="">
Arthur Stamoulis<br class="">Citizens Trade Campaign<br class="">(202) 494-8826<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">
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