WASHINGTON, DC – President Joe Biden has revoked a presidential cross-border permit allowing the completion of the Keystone XL pipeline.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s communications director Ian Fury issued a brief statement to the South Dakota Broadcasters Association moments after the Presidential revocation was signed.
“It’s unfortunate that President Biden is not standing up for American jobs and energy independence,” said Fury.
The controversial Keystone XL pipeline was planned to carry Canadian oil sands to refineries along the Gulf coast. The project is routed through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. Several construction camps and staging faculties are already in place in the states.
Trans-Canada Energy, owners of Keystone XL, say they plan to challenge the revocation in court. “TC Energy Corporation is disappointed with the action to revoke the existing Presidential Permit for the Keystone XL pipeline,” said a company spokesperson. “The action would directly lead to the layoff of thousands of union workers and negatively impact ground-breaking industry commitments to use new renewable energy as well as historic equity partnerships with Indigenous communities.”
But Kevin Killer, President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota that has long opposed the pipeline, said the President’s action “sends a strong message to tribal nations, and symbolizes a willingness to build on government-to-government relationships established through our treaties.”
The approximate 1,700-mile (2,735-kilometer) pipeline would carry roughly 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast. TC Energy Corporation argues the pipeline enhances North American energy security. But a report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration notes that Gulf Coast refineries export about two-thirds of their product. Oil delivered from the pipeline is expected to be exported primarily to Mexico and Asian countries.
First proposed in 2008, the pipeline has become a symbol of the tensions between economic development and curbing the fossil fuel emissions that are causing climate change. The Obama administration rejected it, but former President Donald Trump revived it and has been a strong supporter.
Construction has already started.
