According to transition briefing documents obtained by CTV News, US President-elect Joe Biden will kill the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day of office.
The US will hold its 59th inaugural ceremony to swear in President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on Wednesday January 20, 2021.
The Keystone XL pipeline extension builds upon existing infrastructure which transports Canadian crude oil into the U.S. The extension would’ve delivered 830,000 barrels of oil from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska. The project had a price tag of approximately US$8 billion.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney expressed his disappointment in the announcement.
“Doing so would kill jobs on both sides of the border, weaken the critically important Canada-US relationship, and undermine US national security by making the United States more dependent on OPEC oil imports in the future,” Kenney said in a statement.
Kenney reiterated that the Government of Canada once said building the extension was “top of the agenda” with President-elect Biden.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau brought up the project in a congratulatory phone call with Biden following the US election.
According to sources, they spoke for around 10 minutes and agreed to continue discussing later down the road.
Biden’s campaign has promised to block the extension since the Democratic presidential primaries. In May 2020, Biden’s campaign policy director Stef Feldman said that Biden would cancel the Trump Administration’s approvals for the pipeline.
In response, the Business Council of Alberta threatened a “multibillion-dollar lawsuit” if Biden followed through with his promise.
Biden has also promised to rejoin the controversial Paris Accord, which President Trump withdrew from in 2017.
