FILE – Then-Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Del., Tuesday, June 30, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Patrick Semansky

Documents show Biden plans to issue order to cancel Keystone XL on first day in office

Some 200 kilometres of pipe have already been installed, including over the Canada-U. S. border

  • Jan. 17, 2021 12:00 a.m.

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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