(Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is planning to cancel the license for the $ 9 billion Keystone XL pipeline project as one of his first acts in office, and perhaps on his very first day, according to a source familiar with your thinking.
President Donald Trump, a Republican, has made pipeline construction a central promise in his presidential campaign. Biden, who will take office on Wednesday, was vice president of the Obama administration when he rejected the bill as opposed to 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 https://bit.ly/3nP4993 of Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC).
Biden, a Democrat, had previously promised to cancel the presidential license for the pipeline if he became president.
The Keystone pipeline is operated by TC Energy Corp. The company did not immediately comment when contacted by Reuters. A representative from Biden’s team did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, Seamus O’Regan, referred the questions to the office of Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to Washington. Hillman’s office was not immediately available for comment.
The project, which would move oil from Alberta to Nebraska, has been delayed due to legal issues in the United States.
It also faced opposition from environmentalists seeking to control the expansion of Canada’s oil sands, opposing new pipelines to transport its oil to refineries.
Alberta Prime Minister Jason Kenney said on Twitter that he was “deeply concerned” about the report, adding that canceling the presidential authorization for the pipeline would kill jobs “on both sides of the border”, would weaken US-Canada relations. and would undermine American national security by making the United States more dependent on OPEC oil imports.
Should the Biden administration block permission for the Keystone XL pipeline, Alberta will work with TC to seek all available legal avenues, Kenney said on Twitter.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that TC planned to announce a series of revisions, including a promise to use only renewable energy, in an attempt to win Biden’s support for the project.
A spokesman for the company quoted by the Journal said Keystone will announce the measures this week.
Construction is underway in Canada, with the crossing of the international border completed. In the United States, TC started building pumping stations in each of the states through which the line will pass, but legal setbacks cost a lot during the 2020 construction season.
Former Democratic President Barack Obama suspended the project in 2015, saying that Canada would reap most of the economic benefits, while the project would increase greenhouse gas emissions.
Trump issued a presidential license in 2017 that allowed the line to move forward, and several environmental groups sued the U.S. government.
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in Wilmington, Delaware, and Kanishka Singh and Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York, David Ljunggren in Ottawa and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)