Trump Plans To Revive Keystone XL Pipeline Project on Day One
The project had been cancelled by Biden shortly after his 2021 inauguration.
It’s been quite some time since we covered the Keystone XL Pipeline, a proposed extension of the existing Keystone Pipeline System designed to transport crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to Nebraska.
The project’s goal was to expand the pipeline system’s capacity by allowing the transport of up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day over a distance of approximately 1,210 miles. The aim was to provide a more direct route for Canadian oil, and provisions were included for adding American-produced oil from the Bakken formation in Montana and North Dakota.
The last time we reported on this Keystone KL, it included a review of the number of jobs that were not created because Biden terminated this project (initially authorized by President-elect Donald Trump.)
The report, which the Department of Energy (DOE) completed in late December without any public announcement, says the Keystone XL project would have created between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs and would have had a positive economic impact of between $3.4-9.6 billion, citing various studies. A previous report from the federal government published in 2014 determined 3,900 direct jobs and 21,050 total jobs would be created during construction which was expected to take two years.
Now, people familiar with the incoming administration’s plans indicate that Trump will revive the project on Day One.
Trump believes declaring the 1,200-mile Canada-to-Nebraska crude project back on the table would drive the pro-oil message he delivered in his campaign, said people involved in the transition team discussions about the idea. Trump also wants to show he can defy President Joe Biden, who reversed Trump’s initial 2017 approval of the project, which was strongly opposed by the climate movement.
“It’s on the list of things they want to do first day,” said one of the people familiar with Trump’s plan, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
…During his latest presidential campaign, Trump railed against Biden’s decision to revoke the Keystone XL permit.
“Why does Biden go in and kill the Keystone [XL] pipeline and approve the single biggest deal that Russia’s ever made, Nord Stream 2, the biggest pipeline anywhere in the world going to Germany and all over Europe?” Trump said during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, referring to the gas line that was hit by sabotage in 2022. “Because they’re weak and they’re ineffective.”
#BREAKING: Donald Trump to revive Keystone XL oil pipeline on first day in office – POLITICO pic.twitter.com/XI8cnt3Ayh
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 20, 2024
Interestingly, the cancellation of Keystone XL by Biden shortly after his inauguration marked a significant diplomatic setback for Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau. He expressed disappointment over the decision.
“The prime minister raised Canada’s disappointment with the United States’ decision on the Keystone XL pipeline,” a statement said. “The prime minister underscored the important economic and energy security benefits of our bilateral energy relationship as well as his support for energy workers.”
Hopefully, Trudeau will better appreciate Trump’s economic diplomacy for the remainder of his time as Prime Minister….for however long that will be.
It’s going to take Team Trump quite some time and effort to rebuild everything that was damaged or destroyed under Biden.
Canceling the Keystone XL pipeline “not only totally sabotaged a lot of our potential with Canada, it told everyone in industry you could be on the chopping block at any moment. And so that disincentivizes investment, it creates fear.”
With @RitaPanahi pic.twitter.com/VUPoHuPhyU
— Alex Epstein (@AlexEpstein) November 16, 2024
Maybe we will even be able to refill our Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
As of today, America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve remains depleted, holding 259 million barrels less than when Biden took office.
The U.S emergency oil supply—which has a storage capacity of 714 million barrels—now sits at just 379 million barrels, the lowest level in 41 years. pic.twitter.com/NReKkcgaTn
— Adrian Norman (@AdrianNormanDC) November 19, 2024
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Comments
A pipe dream
Do we really need a strategic reserve? With an oil industry second to none, wouldn’t that negate the risk of a third party cutting off our supply? Unless the politicians want to use it like Xiden did to control releases to dampen price swings.
How would NOT having a reserve make it less likely that overseas oil supplies could be cut? The entire point of the reserve was to reduce shortage shocks and make sure we could mount a war effort quickly without crippling the domestic side.
It certainly wasn’t intended to be used as an artificial way of holding petrol prices at their current exorbitant rate thanks to political decisions taken by Democrats that drove the price up to begin with.
We’ll see St. Greta Thunberg the Antisemite of the Gaza Strip jetting in, along with other turds from that stupid “glue yourself to the highway”/“throw paint on an art masterpiece” crowd whinging about the pipeline with the usual specious excuses about why it should not be built. I love Rita Panahi’s description of St. Greta of Gaza: the miserable little doom goblin. Fits that mentally ill little polemicist quite well.
We can simply make St Greta persona non grata.
No visa, no visit, and if she shows up, send her fat ass packing back to the shït hole from which she crawled.
Or you could say we could make her a “persona non Greta.”
Sink her little kayak before it gets west of Bermuda.
I wonder if Trudeau will still go along with his part?
One would think he would still be keen for it and the economic benefit it will bring to Canada. If he’s suddenly against it then he’s a little bitch playing little bitch politics 😂
I find it difficult to believe that any companies would get involved in this project again.
It’s been cancelled twice now, at huge cost. What’s to say that in four years the Democrats don’t manage to pull off another election theft and cancel it again? How much more money would the involved companies have invested in it, only to see it go down the drain again?
Trump can authorize this all he wants but I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole.
How many times does Lucy have to pull the ball away before Charlie Brown learns the lesson?
This is true of many similar projects:
Mining
Other natural resources
Oil & gas exploration as well as transport
Nuclear energy
Etc
Democrats seek to destroy and change the rules to ruin any project and even if you get it permitted and running during a Republican admin, they seek to come back later and destroy it.
There needs to be a change such that certain rule changes the government is on the hook, not the private company.
“Update the environment rules on a an already permitted mine? The government is on the hook for 75% of the compliance costs.”
“Try to change the rules on a pipeline $3 billion in to construction? There is a $3 billion ‘break up’ fee.”
There could be better ways – but something needs to change.
Don’t restart it immediately. Announce that you don’t trust Castreau, but it will be back on the table the day after Poilevre is sworn in.
What an interesting idea but the progressive communitariat would immediately denounce it as “interference in Canadian elections”. Remember, only progressives are allowed to interfere in elections!
And the answer would be “Yes, it is. So what?”
If it’s kosher to tell a country that they won’t be getting their foreign aid unless they fire an inconvenient investigator, what could be wrong with this?
Start it immediately and only build it to the Canadian border with the implicit threat it only gets completed post election next year.
Who’s going to invest in that, and take the risk that it’ll never be completed?
Milhouse fantastic idea