Elected President Joe Biden is considering canceling the cross-border permit for TC energy’s Keystone XL pipeline – and Canadian officials are concerned.
Alberta’s 18th prime minister, Jason Kenney, said in a tweet that he was “deeply concerned about reports that the incoming government of President-elect Joe Biden could revoke the presidential permit for the Keystone XL border crossing.”
The project is expected to move 830,000 barrels of crude oil daily from the province of Alberta to Nebraska, but the cancellation of this $ 9 billion project has been reported to be one of Biden’s Day One climate change actions.
A source close to the Biden administration and the pipeline project told Fox News: ‘Biden people were weighing the decision on the numbers in the manufacturing work, but clearly had to win over the environmentalists in his team earlier.
The same source further said that the pipeline company and union partners have sharpened their messages around the environmental settlement, with the pipeline moving forward with a net standard for zero emissions.
TC Energy announced on Sunday that the project will reach net emissions in operations by 2023.
However, Canadian officials still fear that this cancellation will kill jobs on both sides of the border, weaken relations between Canada and the US and undermine US national security.
Richard Madan, correspondent for Canada’s leading news report, CTV News, said in a tweet that Canadian officials viewed the expected cancellation as a fistfight in Canada’s face.
Keystone XL has become a political symbol of the struggle between climate activists and the oil industry.
The project has been controversial since the proposal a decade ago. Opponents argue that stimulating the development of oil sands contributes to climate change. On the other hand, the Canadian oil industry argues that Keystone XL is essential for the supply of heavy crude refineries to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Biden is expected to revoke the presidential permit for Keystone XL on an inauguration day by an executive order, reversing one of President Trump’s first actions in office.