“The only question has always been whether labor can repel the death sentence,” said an oil and gas lobbyist who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. “And they never had a chance.”
A Biden Transition spokesman declined to comment.
Canada’s ambassador to Washington Kirsten Hillman declined to confirm reports. “The Government of Canada continues to support the Keystone XL project,” she told POLITICO in a statement Sunday night. “Keystone XL fits into Canada’s climate plan. It will also contribute to US energy security and economic competitiveness.”
Recalling Keystone XL would deny one of President Donald Trump’s first actions in office and kill a project that became a political totem in the battle between climate activists and the oil industry. Although many analysts have said that the rise in U.S. shale oil makes new sources of Canadian crude oil less important, TC Energy has pursued years of legal challenges in the fight against obtaining the necessary state permits to build the pipeline.
The reaction: TC Energy announced on Sunday that Keystone XL will achieve a net release of operations as soon as it launches in 2023. A spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on Biden’s executive order plans.
Environmentalists applauded the decision. “Elected President Biden shows courage and empathy to the farmers, peasants and tribal lands who have faced an ongoing threat that has disrupted their lives for more than a decade,” said Jane Kleeb, founder of Bold Nebraska, a grassroots group that focused on it. has to sweep, said. the project.
Relations between Canada and America: TC Energy proposed the $ 8 billion pipeline for the first time in 2008, saying the 1,200-mile project is essential to deliver crude oil from western Canada to refineries in the Midwest. The Obama administration denied a permit for the pipeline across the border in 2015, but said the oil it would supply would exacerbate climate change.
Keystone XL was one of the few issues on which Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed. The Liberal government planned to continue advocating for the pipeline.
During a congratulatory conversation with Biden on November 9, Trudeau told the incoming president he was looking forward to joining forces to fight climate change while collaborating on energy projects such as the Keystone XL.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said Biden did not want to cancels a project already under construction when it announced in March that its government would take a $ 1.1 billion stake in Keystone XL. Preliminary construction began last fall in Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota.
The provincial government openly wiped out legal interference last year in a court case that thwarted pipeline construction and reportedly hired U.S. lobbyists to state its case in Washington.
Stef Feldman, a policy director for Biden’s campaign, told POLITICO in May that the Democrat “will once again proudly stand in the Roosevelt chamber as president and stop it for good.”
What’s next: In a statement Sunday night, Kenney vowed to work with TC Energy “to use all available laws to protect Alberta’s interest in the pipeline.