Keystone XL company officially calls it quits on pipeline
Canadian pipeline company TC Energy said on Wednesday it was formally ending its bid to build the Keystone XL pipeline project, bringing the long-running battle over its construction to an end 13 years after it was first proposed.
For nearly its entire history, the project had been at the center of the fight over climate change, and environmentalists had used it as a rallying cry in their campaign to block major new oil developments.
President Joe Biden revoked the pipeline's permits on his first day in office, reversing former President Donald Trump's approval of the line that would have carried 800,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Trump's move had undone former President Barack Obama's 2015 rejection of the pipeline's permit.
“After a comprehensive review of its options, and in consultation with its partner, the Government of Alberta, [TC Energy] has terminated the Keystone XL Pipeline Project,” the company said on its website.
The statement comes after TC Energy announced in May it was taking a $2.2 billion writedown on its earnings to account for the pipeline project stalling.
“Construction activities to advance the Project were suspended following the revocation of its Presidential Permit on January 20, 2021,” the company continued. “The Company will continue to coordinate with regulators, stakeholders and Indigenous groups to meet its environmental and regulatory commitments and ensure a safe termination of and exit from the Project.”
TC Energy’s announcement is likely the final chapter in the Keystone XL saga. The pipeline project was first unveiled in the early days of the U.S. oil shale boom in fields in North Dakota, Texas and New Mexico.
Republican senators have hammered Biden for rescinding the cross-border permit, complaining that it would hurt both the U.S. and Canada economically and would make the U.S. dependent on more hostile countries for oil.
What’s Next: Environmental activists and native tribes are pressuring the Biden administration to shut down other oil pipelines, including Dakota Access and Enbridge’s Line 3.
