NEW YORK – Blocked by United States President Joe Biden, Canada’s TC Energy said today it had officially terminated the Keystone XL Pipeline project, throwing in the towel on a controversial initiative opposed by environmental activists.
TC Energy 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 said in a press release, confirming that it had notified the government of the province of Alberta.
Biden formally rescinded a permit for the pipeline, first proposed in 2008, by executive order on his first day in office in January 2021.
He had vowed during the presidential campaign to end the project over environmental concerns, a reversal of the stance taken by predecessor Donald Trump.
While the project has long been backed by Canada, Keystone XL had been opposed by environmentalists and indigenous groups, who have organised rallies against the pipeline in Washington, Ottawa and in the affected areas throughout the last decade.
The 1,947km 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.
TC Energy argued that bringing so much oil from friendly, neighbouring Canada would reduce US dependence on the Middle East and Venezuela by up to 40%.
The State Department estimated the plan would have created 42,000 temporary jobs over the two-year construction period, but opponents noted that just 35 permanent jobs would be created for pipeline maintenance. – AFP, June 10, 2021
