WASHINGTON, DC (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden is planning to cancel the permit for the $9 billion Keystone XL pipeline project as one of his first acts in office, and perhaps as soon as his first day, according to a source familiar with his thinking.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, had made building the pipeline a central promise of his presidential campaign. Biden, who will be inaugurated on Wednesday, was vice president in the Obama administration when it rejected the project as contrary to its efforts to combat climate change.
The words “Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit” appear on a list of executive actions likely scheduled for the first day of Biden’s presidency, according to an earlier report by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC).
Biden, a Democrat, had earlier vowed to scrap the oil pipeline’s presidential permit if he became president.
Canada’s ambassador to the United States said she would continue to promote a project that she said fit with both countries’ environmental plans.
“There is no better partner for the U.S. on climate action than Canada as we work together for green transition,” Ambassador Kirsten Hillman said in a statement.
The project, which would move oil from the province of Alberta to refineries in the Gulf Coast of Texas, had been slowed by legal issues in the United States.
It also faced opposition from environmentalists seeking to check the expansion of Canada’s oil sands by opposing new pipelines to move its crude to refineries.
Energy lobbyists claim completing the XL pipeline will protect America’s national energy security and bring U.S. fuel prices down. But Natural Resources Defense Council and its partners found the majority of Keystone XL oil will be sent to markets overseas (aided by the recent reversal of a ban on crude oil exports)—and could even lead to higher prices at the pump for U.S. consumers.
