Blocked by Biden: Keystone XL Pipeline is finally AXED five months after President revoked permit: Trump claims 48,000 Americans will lose their jobs
The Keystone XL Pipeline project has officially been axed, five months after Joe Biden revoked Donald Trump's permit on his first day in office and just days after the former president claimed the move could cost 48,000 American jobs.
TC Energy, the Canadian developer behind the project, announced Wednesday it was pulling the plug on the controversial $8 billion pipeline that would have carried 800,000 barrels of oil a day from the tar sands of Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.
The company said it had come to the decision following a comprehensive review of its options and after consulting with the government of Alberta, Canada. It alluded to Biden's decision to ax the permit as part of the reason for the project's cancellation.
The move brings to an end a decade of political wrangling over the pipeline and sees Biden's America wave goodbye to another program launched under Trump.
Environmentalists and indigenous groups had long opposed the pipeline, and Biden vowed during the White House race to withdraw US support for the project.
The Valero refinery in Port Arthur Texas which would have been the end of the line for oil that would travel through the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Keystone XL Pipeline project has officially been axed
Joe Biden addresses US Air Force personnel at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk Wednesday, ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall. Biden revoked Donald Trump's permit for the pipeline on his first day in office
TC Energy said Wednesday it had notified the government of Alberta of its decision and will coordinate with regulators, indigenous groups and other stakeholders 'to meet its environmental and regulatory commitments and ensure a safe termination of and exit from the Project.'
The company will now focus its business around the areas of shipping and storing natural gas, liquid fuels and power.
François Poirier, the company's president and CEO, said in a statement: 'We value the strong relationships we've built through the development of this Project and the experience we've gained.'
Alberta officials also said in a statement that they had reached an agreement with TC Energy to exit their partnership.
The company and province plan to try to recoup the government's investment, although neither offered any immediate details on how that would happen.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said he was 'disappointed and frustrated' with the project's demise and pointed the finger at Biden.
'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,' Kenney said in a statement.
The 1,210-mile (1,947-kilometer) pipeline, starting in 2023, was to transport up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from the Alberta oil sands to Nebraska and then through an existing system to refineries in coastal Texas.
Trump pictured in 2017 signing an executive order to advance construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The former president has claimed the axing of the project cost 48,000 US jobs
Alberta had hoped the pipeline would spur increased development in the oil sands and bring tens of billions of dollars in royalties to the area over the coming decades.
The province invested more than $1 billion in the project in 2020 alone.
Construction began last year after Trump granted the project a permit to cross the border into America when he took office in 2017.
But Biden signed an executive order within hours of entering the White House in January formally rescinding the permit.
Biden had vowed during the presidential campaign to end the project over concerns that burning oil sands crude would make climate change worse.
The Democrat had put the climate crisis high on his political agenda, also moving to re-enter the US in the Paris Climate Agreement - after his predecessor pulled the nation from it.
A pipe yard for the Keystone XL pipeline in Oyen, Alberta, in January. TC Energy, the Canadian developer behind the project, announced Wednesday it was pulling the plug on the controversial $8 billion pipeline
Crews working on the pipeline in Canada in January. The move to ax the pipeline brings to an end a decade of political wrangling over it
In January Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hit out at the nixing of the permit and urged Biden to rethink his decision.
However officials in Alberta have since claimed Trudeau didn't push Biden hard enough to reinstate the permit and the president was not swayed.
Republicans were also unhappy about Biden's move. A total of 21 Republican states sued the president over his executive order, saying the line would have created thousands of construction jobs.
The Democrat has even sparked some division on the matter within his own party, with moderate Senate Democrats including Montana's Jon Tester and West Virginia's Joe Manchin urging him to reconsider.
Tester said in a statement Wednesday that he was disappointed with the project's demise, but made no mention of Biden.
Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate energy committee, was more direct: 'President Biden killed the Keystone XL Pipeline and with it, thousands of good-paying American jobs.'
Environmental activists at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington DC in April. Environmentalists and indigenous groups had long opposed the pipeline
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on TC Energy's announcement.
Trump had raged about the halting of the pipeline at the North Carolina GOP convention dinner in Greenville on Saturday night, claiming his successor had cost America 48,000 jobs.
'The Biden administration seems to be putting America last. You look at these negotiations where so many bad things have happened,' he said.
'48,000 jobs were lost by President Biden's day one rejection of the keystone pipeline. For what reason - why did they do that?
'And if you like the environment, the pipeline is much better than railroad tracks and trucking. It's great and they ended it on day one.'
The pipeline has been a source of controversy for more than a decade.
Indigenous groups rally at DC in 2014 against the building of the pipeline that would have ran through land they own
It was first proposed back in 2008 but has fallen in and out of favor with the US as the nation's leadership yo-yoed from Democrat to Republican and back to Democrat.
The project stalled under the Obama administration before its approval under Trump - followed by its total demise under Biden.
The pipeline faced strong opposition from environmentalists who viewed the expansion of oil sands development as an environmental disaster that could speed up global warming as the fuel is burned.
They celebrated the news Wednesday saying the line's cancellation marks a 'landmark moment' in the effort to curb the use of fossil fuels.
'Good riddance to Keystone XL,' said Jared Margolis with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of many environmental groups that sued to stop it.
Native American tribes along its route had also long opposed its building as it would have ran through land that they own.
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