President Donald Trump has reignited interest in the construction of the Keystone pipeline, calling for an “immediate start” on the project.
Plans to build the Keystone XL pipeline in Montana and South Dakota were shelved by the Biden administration over environmental concerns, but Trump appears to be interested in restarting the process in a post on social media.
Why It Matters
The pipeline project would expand an existing conduit for transporting tar-sands oil from Canada through the U.S. to the Gulf Coast. After years of legal challenges and environmental activism to shut the project down, the company behind it officially halted construction in June 2021 after former President Joe Biden revoked a key permit.
What To Know
In a post to Truth Social, Trump said that the company that would have been responsible for building the pipeline was treated unfairly by Biden, and that he wanted them to “come back to America.”
The president said: “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!
“I know they were treated very badly by Sleepy Joe Biden, but the Trump Administration is very different—Easy approvals, almost immediate start! If not them, perhaps another Pipeline Company. We want the Keystone XL Pipeline built!”
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Biden’s decision to shut down the project had previously been met with criticism from Republican leaders, as the closure coincided with developments in the Russian war on Ukraine that led to a global rise in gas prices.
At the time, former Vice President Mike Pence said: “Gas prices have risen across the country because of this Administration’s war on energy—shutting down the Keystone Pipeline, shutting down oil and gas leases in this country—while they were incomprehensibly green-lighting the Nord Stream 2 deal for the Russians.”
What People Are Saying
At the time of the cancellation, officials in Alberta, Canada, where the pipeline was meant to reach, said: “We remain disappointed and frustrated with the circumstances surrounding the Keystone XL project, including the cancellation of the presidential permit for the pipeline’s border crossing.”
James Glynn, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told Newsweek: “There is little evidence to back up the argument that Keystone XL would have averted some of this price spike. The Keystone pipeline capacity is less than one-tenth of Russian oil exports.”
What Happens Next
It is not yet clear how the Trump administration will move the pipeline project forward.
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