Is This the End of the Keystone XL Pipeline?
Shelby Johnston, Online Staff Writer
February 12, 2021
Doug, Mills. “President Biden signed executive orders during his first few minutes in the Oval Office on Wednesday.” The New York Times. January 20, 2021.
The Keystone XL pipeline has now been a controversial issue spanning three presidencies. On January 20th, just hours after his inauguration President Biden signed 17 executive orders, memorandums and proclamations counteracting and dismantling policies created by the Trump administration. One of those executive orders included revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, essentially ending its chances of going through American soil.
The Keystone XL pipeline was proposed by TC Energy, a Canadian energy infrastructure company. The pipeline was meant to be an expansion of the company’s existing Keystone Pipeline system that was created in 2010. The system transports Canadian tar sands crude oil from Alberta into the United States, the expansion would extend the pipeline system to the Gulf Coast of Texas. This extension would be able to transport approximately 830,000 barrels of Alberta tar sands oil to the Gulf Coast daily, a significantly faster system than what exists today.
Talks of the Keystone XL pipeline began in 2008 with the Obama administration ultimately vetoing the pipeline in November 2015. Upon his inauguration, President Trump signed an executive order to advance the Keystone XL pipeline, one of his campaign promises. During his four-year administration, President Trump personally sought to advance the pipeline project and quickly to avoid all the controversy that came along with the pipeline. However, he only created more controversy by relying on faulty environmental reviews which resulted in many lawsuits and wasted time.
The environmental impact of the pipeline eventually became a significant issue for those who opposed the project. The pipeline was meant to transport tar sands oil which is a thicker, more acidic and more corrosive substance than regular crude oil. As a result, the likelihood that the pipeline would leak was significantly higher. The Natural Resources Defense Council published an article which found that, “between 2007 and 2010, pipelines moving tar sands oil in Midwestern states spilled three times more per mile than the U.S national average for pipelines carrying conventional crude oil.” In addition, the existing Keystone Pipeline System has leaked more than a dozen times, most recently in October of 2019 when the pipeline was temporarily shut down after a spill in North Dakota of approximately 378,000 gallons was reported. This gave environmental activists the leverage they needed in order to argue that the pipeline presented serious environmental risks.
The next significant issue dealt with in regards to the pipeline controversy was land rights claims on both sides of the border. Indigenous groups on both sides of the border opposed the pipeline as it would go right through their treaty protected land. In the United States, the federal government has signed treaties with the Great Sioux Nation which the Keystone pipeline extension would go right through, potentially endangering sacred land and ground water resources. Without agreement of the Great Sioux Nation in accordance with their treaty protections, the Keystone pipeline extension cannot go through treaty protected land. However, others are not so lucky, as eminent domain is a federal law in the United States protected by the fifth amendment. Eminent domain is the legal process that allows the taking of private property for public purposes. Meaning that any land owners who did not want to sell their land to make way for the pipeline were forced to through eminent domain. The Federal government forced American citizens out of their homes with “just compensation” to secure the pipeline route.
The job market discussions surrounding the extension have also been controversial. Supporters of the pipeline focused on how many jobs the pipeline extension would create in order to try and sell the pipeline to the public. Early on, TC Energy announced that the pipeline would create over 119,000 jobs, when in reality the United States State Department released a report on the Keystone XL pipeline that highlighted that the pipeline would only create temporary jobs and likely sit around the ten thousand mark. During the Trump administration when it came time to begin construction the pipeline website announced that it awarded six American union contracts that would likely employ between 7000 to 11,000 workers. In the 2014 State Department report it estimated that 10,400 of those positions would be seasonal construction work lasting four to eight month contract periods. The majority of the jobs created by the pipeline were temporary and the jobs would no longer exist in two years upon the completion of the pipeline. The pipeline was estimated to create no more than 50 permanent jobs between the United States and Canada. 35 of these positions would be fully permanent while the other 15 would rotate between temporary contracts. Outrage occurred yet again when President Biden signed the executive order to rescind permission for the project as people claimed tens of thousands were losing their jobs instantly as a result. When TC Energy fact checked the information, they stated that approximately 1,000 people lost their temporary contracts as a result of the executive order.
What is arguably most interesting about the United States executive order effectively ending the Keystone XL pipeline, is the lack of outrage from key government officials. Both the Canadian Federal Government and the Alberta Government supported and rallied hard for the pipeline over the last decade, yet at its cancelation neither had much to say. Premier Kenney, who is known to outrageously display his opinion, has been considerably well behaved, only stating he believes the action to be disrespectful to Biden’s Canadian allies. Prime Minister Trudeau simply stated that he was disappointed in the decision made by President Biden. So why are the two people most vested in Canada’s economic benefit from the pipeline, so quiet on its demise? It's relatively simple: the Keystone XL pipeline does more harm than it is worth. The pipeline extension has caused nothing but controversy on both sides of the border throughout the last decade, spanning multiple changes of government. The success of the pipeline seemed less likely by the day at the point that Biden rescinded permission for the project. Does the Canadian economy need a pipeline? Potentially. Will another energy infrastructure company come along and attempt a new strategy? Probably. However, as it stands, the current Keystone XL pipeline is more trouble than it is worth and has been abandoned on both sides of the border.