The USD$9 billion Keystone XL oil pipeline, which was proposed in 2008 to bring oil from Canada’s Western tar sands to US refiners, was cancelled by owner TC Energy Corp after US President Joe Biden revoked a key permit needed for the US stretch of the 1 900km project.
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What is Happening?
- The project was controversial from the beginning, with opponents fighting its construction for years, saying that it was unnecessary and would hamper the US transition to cleaner energy.
- TC Energy said that it decided to terminate the project after a comprehensive review of its options and consulting with the government of Alberta, Canada. The company said it would coordinate with regulators, stakeholders and Indigenous groups to ensure a safe exit from the project. On his first day in the White House, President Joe Biden revoked the permit his predecessor granted to Keystone XL.
- Before finally being cancelled, the Keystone XL pipeline was expected to carry 830 000 barrels per day of Alberta oil sands crude to Nebraska, but the project was delayed for the past 12 years due to opposition from US landowners, Native American tribes and environmentalists.
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Jared Margolis, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, says, “This is a landmark moment in the fight against the climate crisis. We’re hopeful that the Biden administration will continue to shift this country in the right direction by opposing fossil fuel projects.”
- TC Energy owns the existing Keystone oil pipeline, which runs from Alberta to the US oil storage hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, and to the US Gulf, along with a power and storage business. It pledged to ensure a safe termination of the project.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in a statement, “We remain disappointed and frustrated with the circumstances surrounding the Keystone XL project, including the cancellation of the presidential permit for the pipeline’s border crossing.”
- The end of Keystone XL will add to the pressure on Biden from environmentalists to terminate other projects, including Line 3 and the Dakota Access pipeline.
Featured image by: Flickr
