President Donald Trump expressed his desire to see the company behind the Keystone XL Pipeline come back to the U.S. and continue the project “NOW!”
“Our Country’s doing really well, and today, I was just thinking, that the company building the Keystone XL Pipeline that was viciously jettisoned by the incompetent Biden Administration should come back to America, and get it built — NOW!” he said Monday on Truth Social. “I know they were treated very badly by Sleepy Joe Biden, but the Trump Administration is very different — Easy approvals, almost immediate start!”
Former President Biden canceled the pipeline on his first day in office through an executive order and after that, the operator of the pipeline, TC Energy, decided to move on.
TC Energy spun off its oil pipeline business in October last year into a new company named South Bow Energy.
"We've moved on from the Keystone XL project," said South Bow spokeswoman Katie Stavinoha in an email on Tuesday. "We continue to engage with customers to develop options to increase Canadian oil supplies to meet growing demand."
TC Energy has sought to recover more than $15 billion from the U.S. government for the cancellation of its Keystone XL project.
Opponents of that pipeline had fought its construction for years, saying it was unnecessary and would hamper the U.S. transition to cleaner fuels.
The Keystone XL pipeline project was delayed due to opposition from U.S. landowners, Native American tribes and environmentalists.
Trump had approved a permit for the line in 2017, but it continued to face legal challenges that hampered construction. Biden had committed to canceling the project during his 2020 campaign and revoked the permit soon after taking office in 2021. (Reuters)
The president was open to another company stepping in, however.
“If not them, perhaps another Pipeline Company," he added. "We want the Keystone XL Pipeline built!”
Citing various studies, a December 2022 Department of Energy report said the project, which would have delivered up to 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Canada to the U.S., would have created thousands of jobs.
"If the president had not canceled it, the pipeline would have created a positive economic impact of $3.6 to $9.6 billion," Sen. James Risch noted. "What’s more, the administration finally admitted that the President killed between 16,000 and 59,000 jobs with the stroke of a pen."