Developer TC Energy terminated the project Wednesday after failing to persuade President Biden to reverse his permit cancellation from January.
What We Know:
- Former President Donald Trump gave the project a green light after stagnation from the Obama administration. Construction began last year on the 1,200-mile pipeline that would have moved 35 million gallons of crude oil daily. The pipeline would have connected Nebraska to other pipelines on the Gulf Coast.
- Biden canceled the border-crossing permit on his first day in the White House, which has been considered a win for activists. Concerns that burning oil sands crude could make climate change effects worse or harder to reverse were a major part of the decision.
- TC Energy warned that this decision would lead to the layoff of thousands of union workers. Attorney generals from 21 states went on to sue to overturn Biden’s decision as the pipeline would have created thousands of construction jobs. Robin Rorick, Vice President of midstream and industry operations at the American Petroleum Institute, stated, “This is a blow to U.S. energy security and a blow to the thousands of good-paying union jobs this project would have supported.”
- The Canadian government had invested more than $1 billion into the project. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau objected to Biden’s decision which has caused tension between the U.S. and Canada. Alberta officials reached an agreement with TC Energy to exit the deal and they plan to try and recoup the investment.
- Activists are counting this as a major win in their fight for environmental justice. A lot of credit is being given to indigenous communities that have engaged in this fight for years. “We stood hand-in-hand to protect the next seven generations of life, the water, and our communities from this dirty tar pipeline,” the Indigenous Environmental Network said in a statement.
Biden’s decision to revoke the permit aligns with the environmental initiatives of his administration. David Turnbull, Strategic Communications Direction at Oil Change International, said, “The cancellation of Keystone XL is a reminder that this project was never needed and never in public interest, and that it is time for the fossil fuel era to rapidly come to a close.”
