The Keystone XL pipeline was one of the items on Barack Obama’s legislative kill list. He set into motion plans to stop the project, which was rolled out in 2017 by then-President Trump. Outgoing President Joe Biden also set the ‘kill the pipeline’ plan into motion again, with President-elect Trump vowing to restart it. The tug-of-war on this massive energy project might have reached another set, but there’s a catch—the company that was the main force behind its construction no longer wants to build it (via Politico):
Donald Trump is looking to revive the Keystone XL oil pipeline on his first day back in the White House, according to three people familiar with the president-elect’s plan, even though no companies are trying to build it anymore.
Trump believes declaring the 1,200-mile Canada-to-Nebraska crude project back on the table would drive the pro-oil message he delivered in his campaign, said people involved in the transition team discussions about the idea. Trump also wants to show he can defy President Joe Biden, who reversed Trump’s initial 2017 approval of the project, which was strongly opposed by the climate movement.
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The pipeline’s permit to cross the U.S.-Canadian border was first rejected in 2015 by President Barack Obama. Trump in 2017 reversed that decision and approved the border crossing — only to have that decision revoked by Biden in January 2021. After that, TC Energy, the pipeline’s developer, said it would no longer pursue its construction.
Calgary-based TC Energy no longer owns the pipeline system that the Keystone XL was intended to complement. And the portions of the pipeline that TC Energy had put in the ground in both Canada and the United States in anticipation of the cross-border permit approval have been dug up. Replacing that pipe would require any company that wants to rebuild it to again obtain local permits for the project.
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But the pro-oil message it would send was something Trump was interested in delivering, the person said, even if an actual pipeline didn’t materialize right away.
“Everyone in the country knows what the KXL pipeline is,” said this person, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. “It’s energy. It’s infrastructure. It’s construction.”
Yeah, that’s the thing: the people who say this project is back on the table are anonymous sources, though I would no doubt bet heavily that Trump wants to push for this pipeline’s renewal. I’d rather he work on deporting illegal aliens, getting the Trump tax cuts made permanent, and rebuilding the economy, though if he must fight on several fronts at a time, why not throw this one in there? Or at least put feelers out there.
Regardless, much must be done quickly to undo the damage Joe Biden has done.
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