“The only question has always been whether the job can avoid the death sentence,” said an oil and gas lobbyist who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to the press. “And they never had a chance.”
A Biden transition spokesman declined to comment.
Canada’s ambassador to Washington, Kirsten Hillman, did not confirm the reports. “The Canadian government continues to support the Keystone XL project,” she said in a statement to POLITICO on Sunday night. “Keystone XL fits into Canada’s climate plan. It will also contribute to the energy security and economic competitiveness of the United States.”
Rescuing Keystone XL would deny one of President Donald Trump’s first actions in office and kill a project that has become a political totem in the struggle between climate activists and the oil industry. Although many analysts say that the shale oil boom in the U.S. has made new Canadian oil sources less important, TC Energy has fought years of legal challenges against obtaining the state licenses needed to build the pipeline.
The reaction: TC Energy announced on Sunday that Keystone XL would achieve net zero emissions in all operations as soon as it starts operating in 2023. A spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on Biden’s executive order plans.
Environmentalists applauded the decision. “President-elect Biden is showing courage and empathy for farmers, ranchers and tribal nations who have dealt with an ongoing threat that has disrupted their lives for more than a decade,” said Jane Kleeb, founder of Bold Nebraska, a grassroots group focused on in sinking the project.
Canada-US Relations: TC Energy first proposed the $ 8 billion pipeline in 2008, saying the 1,200-mile project was crucial for delivering oil from western Canada to refineries in the Midwest. In 2015, the Obama administration denied a cross-border authorization for the pipeline, saying the oil it would deliver would exacerbate climate change.
Keystone XL was one of the few issues on which Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed. The liberal government planned to continue to defend the pipeline.
During a congratulations call with Biden on November 9, Trudeau told the new president that he hopes to join forces to fight climate change while cooperating on energy projects like Keystone XL.
Alberta Prime Minister Jason Kenney bet that Biden would not canceled a project already under construction when it announced in March that its government had acquired a $ 1.1 billion stake in Keystone XL. Preliminary construction began last fall in Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota.
The provincial government openly considered legal intervention last year in a court case that suspended construction of the pipeline and allegedly hired American lobbyists to defend its case in Washington.
Stef Feldman, a policy director for the Biden campaign, told POLITICO in May that the Democrat “would proudly appear in Sala Roosevelt again as president and would stop doing that forever”.
What is the next: In a statement on Sunday night, Kenney promised to work with TC Energy “to use all available legal avenues to protect” Alberta’s interest in the pipeline.