Transition documents suggest president-elect Joe Biden plans to block the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in the White House.
The documents, seen by The Canadian Press, include a to-do list dated Wednesday that includes rescinding the construction permit signed by predecessor Donald Trump.
Campaign officials promised in May that if elected, Biden would cancel the controversial cross-border project, but the timeline was never clear until now.
The pipeline expansion would ferry up to 830,000 additional barrels a day of diluted bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Some 200 kilometres of pipe have already been installed, including over the Canada-U. S. border, and construction has begun on pump stations in Alberta and several U.S. states.
Biden was vice-president in 2015 when President Barack Obama initially rejected Keystone XL for fear it would worsen climate change. Trump approved it again in 2019.
More coming.
The Canadian Press
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