Trump says he wants Keystone XL pipeline built 'NOW.' How likely is that?
CBC
The politically charged Keystone XL pipeline is back in the spotlight, with U.S. President Donald Trump pitching the company behind the project to return to the U.S. 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!" wrote Trump on his platform Truth Social on Monday night.
The roughly 1,900-kilometre pipeline was designed to take oil from northern Alberta to the U.S. Midwest.
The Keystone XL project has a long, tumultuous history, dating back to when it was first proposed in 2008. It was blocked under the Obama administration, then revived by Trump during his first term in the Oval Office, only to be killed again by president Joe Biden on his first day on the job.
Last month, Trump rescinded a Biden-era executive order revoking a permit for the project, Bloomberg News reported, in theory opening the door for the project to be resuscitated.
South Bow, the company that TC Energy spun off to handle its pipeline business, has said it's no longer interested.
"We've moved on from the Keystone XL project," said spokesperson Katie Stavinoha in a statement.
Trump's enthusiasm for the project has left some scratching their heads about his ultimate game plan for Canadian energy, given that he's still threatening a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian crude oil, set to take effect in early March.
"The big question is: what does the administration really want?" said James Coleman, an energy law professor at the University of Minnesota.
Rafi Tahmazian, a retired energy manager with Canoe Financial, suggested that Trump might be reacting to the recently floated idea that Canada revisit plans for an Energy East pipeline.
"He's worried that if we build a pipeline east, we start to look at sending our oil to other places and diminishing our dependency on the U.S.," said Tahmazian. "And that is a very big problem for his refiners and the products that they produce for the U.S."
Tahmazian says Keystone XL has become a bit of a metaphor. For Trump, he said, it's not so much about the specific project as it is about the overall concept of building a pipeline to get more crude oil into the U.S.
"He's just poking and saying, 'I want to give you guys a chance to recognize there's an opportunity to market that oil to us as well,'" said Tahmazian. "And he used the Keystone term as the vehicle to get everybody aware of it."
In a statement, Carolyn Svonkin, a spokesperson for Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, said Canada is open to a "productive conversation" on the subject, but noted that a private sector partner would be needed to move the project along.
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