US President Donald Trump on Monday called for the revival of the Keystone XL oil pipeline running from Canada to the US, saying that he wants it ‘built now’.
The pipeline, first proposed in 2008, saw its developer walk away from the project in 2021, years after the then-US President Barack Obama vetoed the project in 2015.
“The company building the Keystone XL Pipeline that was viciously jettisoned by the incompetent Biden Administration should come back to America, and get it built – NOW!” Donald Trump said in a post on his social media network.
Donald Trump said his administration is “very different” from the last one and promised “Easy approvals, almost immediate start!”
“If not them, perhaps another Pipeline Company. We want the Keystone XL Pipeline built!” Donald Trump added.
Donald Trump tried to revive Keystone XL during his first term, but former President Joe Biden revoked a permit allowing the pipeline to cross the US-Canada border hours after taking office in January 2021.
All about the Keystone XL pipeline project
The multibillion-dollar 1,200-mile (1,931 kilometer) Keystone XL pipeline project was meant to carry Canadian oil sands crude from Alberta in Canada to the US Gulf Coast. First proposed in 2008 under the George Bush administration as an extension to the existing Keystone pipeline in Canada, it became a litmus test for environmentalism under former President Barack Obama, who rejected it in 2015. It’s been subject to political jockeying ever since.
Obama cited safety and environmental concerns in his veto message to the US Senate for the Keystone XL pipeline Approval Act.
“Because this act of Congress conflicts with established executive branch procedures and cuts short thorough consideration of issues that could bear on our national interest — including our security, safety, and environment — it has earned my veto,” Obama said at the time.
South Bow Corporation, the oil pipeline business spun off from TC Energy, which pursued Keystone XL for more than a decade, has indicated it’s not interested in a revival. Parts of the system, which runs through Alberta, Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska, have already been dismantled. Key permits have expired.
TC Energy already runs the Keystone pipeline in partnership with the government of Alberta.
South Bow has “moved on from the Keystone XL project,” Bloomberg quoted company spokesperson Katie Stavinoha as saying on Monday night.
“We continue to engage with customers to develop options to increase Canadian oil supplies to meet growing US demand,” the statement.
Donald Trump has already revoked a Biden administration executive order that tossed out a March 2019 permit for the pipeline, at least theoretically putting it back in play. But Canadians are still facing the threat of new tariffs on their exports to the US, including a 10 percent levy on crude. Donald Trump has delayed the tariffs until early March.
Donald Trump has previously made it clear he believes the US can rely on its own oil and gas supplies, without the need for resources from its North American neighbours.
Donald Trump’s comments mark just the latest bid by the president to breathe new life into stalled energy projects. Earlier this month, he vowed to complete the Constitution pipeline meant to transport natural gas to New York, even though its developer scrapped the venture in 2020.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt linked the two pipelines in an interview Monday with Fox News host Sean Hannity, as she emphasized Donald Trump’s desire to push for more energy infrastructure.
“We want the Keystone XL pipeline built. He wants a pipeline built in the northeast in New England, where I am from, where we have some of the highest electricity and utility rates in the country,” she said in the interview.