Trump Revives Keystone XL Pipeline to Canada

The Keystone project was suspended for environmental reasons, but the new US administration has decided to restart it.

The Keystone Pipeline is a huge oil pipeline over 400 kilometers long, connecting the Canadian province of Alberta, Canada, to the state of Texas, USA, and running through the western part of North America. Its expansion project, known as Keystone XL, involves the construction of a fourth branch to connect Nebraska to existing infrastructure. However, the project has remained frozen for fifteen years. Keystone XL is expected to be able to transport 500,000 barrels of oil per day for at least twenty years, and the total investment in the pipeline is expected to be about $8 billion.

The project was first suspended during Barack Obama’s presidency and then frozen again under Joe Biden. Now Donald Trump has renewed efforts to bring Keystone back to life. On his Truth social media page, Trump wrote: “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!”

From Ottawa to Washington, DC, environmentalists have held numerous protests in recent years to express their opposition to fossil fuel investments. Protesters were also joined by members of the Lakota and Sioux indigenous peoples who oppose the construction of infrastructure on their sacred lands.

Barack Obama froze the project in 2015, and during his first term as president, Trump tried unsuccessfully to revive it. Joe Biden subsequently permanently revoked the authorization previously granted to TransCanada Corporation to build the project in the USA. Now Trump, whose policies have largely focused on increasing the use of fossil fuels, intends to revisit the issue and resume construction of the oil pipeline that has taken on powerful symbolic significance over the years.