President Biden on Wednesday signed a comprehensive executive order that revokes a key license for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, stops oil and gas leases at a wildlife refuge in Alaska and takes several other environmental actions.
This represents a devastating blow to the approximately 1,200-mile pipeline that transported oil from Canada to the United States and has been countered by various environmental and indigenous groups.
The action reverses a decision on a project defended by President Trump
Donald TrumpLil Wayne gets Trump forgiveness in the 11th hour Trump grants clemency to more than 100 people, including Bannon Trump must forgive Bannon: reports MORE, who first issued a license allowing him to cross the border during the first months of his presidency.
Environmentalists criticized the pipeline, mainly because it should transport oil made from tar sands, whose production is carbon-intensive.
The tribes also expressed opposition, saying the pipeline would cross into their land and violate their treated rights.
Biden, in the executive order, argued that the pipeline “disrespects” the US national interest.
“The United States and the world are facing a climate crisis. This crisis must be faced with actions at a scale and speed compatible with the need to avoid placing the world on a dangerous and potentially catastrophic climate trajectory,” the order said. “Leaving the Keystone XL pipeline license in place would not be consistent with my government’s economic and climate imperatives.”
TC Energy, the company behind the pipeline, released a statement on Wednesday expressing disappointment at the decision, arguing that its pipeline would enhance energy security in North America and create jobs.
The company also said it would “review the decision, assess its implications and consider its options”, but added that the pipeline’s progress would be suspended.
Many Republicans opposed the move, and a group of five Republican senators wrote to Biden on Tuesday asking him to “support the completion and operation” of the pipeline.
Biden’s order also imposes a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leasing activities at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, occurring just a day after the Trump administration issued leases for its first sale.
The refuge is home to brown bears, polar bears, gray wolves and more than 200 species of birds. It contains lands considered sacred by the Gwich’in people.
A 2017 tax law requires two lease sales at the refuge by the end of 2024, one of which occurred at the end of the Trump administration, in a way that critics argued it was rushed. Biden, however, is opposed to leasing oil and gas at the refuge and promised to protect him “permanently” during the campaign.
The temporary moratorium would not amount to a promise by Biden’s campaign to ban new oil and gas lease licenses on public land and public waters.
Asked during a press conference whether the government still had that commitment, the White House press secretary Jen Psaki
Morning Report from Jen Psaki The Hill – President Biden, Vice President Harris start working today on Biden to return to the Paris agreement, revoke Keystone XL license, Trump seeks box-in Biden with executive actions MORE said “we do and the leases will be reviewed.”
The order also restores the Interinstitutional Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases, a group formed under the Obama administration that sought to respond to the damage caused by emissions in formulating the agency’s rules.
While the Obama administration estimated a cost of $ 50 per metric ton for carbon, the Trump administration used a value of $ 7 per metric ton, a measure the Government Accountability Office found that systematically underestimated the damage caused by pollution of carbon.
It also advises agencies to review the boundaries of the Grand Staircase-Escalante, Bears Ears and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.
Trump reduced the protected area to the national monuments Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears, despite objections from environmentalists and Native Americans. He also removed the protections from the National Marine Monument of the Canyons do Nordeste and Montes Submarinos, in an attempt to open it up for more commercial fishing.
Wednesday’s order is also scheduled to direct agencies to review standards for vehicles, appliances and buildings that have been recovered under Trump.
Updated at 21:57