ENVIRONMENT
US President Donald Trump has called for the revival of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline project, which was opposed by environmental activists and blocked under his predecessor, Joe Biden, AFP reported on Monday.
The project was first proposed in 2008, and Biden formally rescinded a permit for the pipeline with an executive order on his first day in office in January 2021, citing environmental concerns. This action reversed Trump’s stance during his first term.
While Canada had long supported the project, Keystone XL faced opposition from environmentalists and Indigenous groups, who organized rallies against it in Washington, Ottawa, and other affected areas.
“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!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform about the Canadian company involved in the project.
What is the Keystone XL Pipeline Project?
The Keystone XL Pipeline project is a proposed extension of the existing Keystone pipeline, designed to transport crude oil from the oil sands of Alberta, Canada, to refineries in the United States, primarily through the states of Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The project has been highly controversial due to concerns about its potential environmental impacts, particularly regarding greenhouse gas emissions and potential damage to sensitive ecosystems.
Courtney Lindwall, a writer for Consumer Reports, writes on NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), an organization that works to safeguard the Earth and its ecosystems, that “The takedown of the notorious Keystone XL (KXL) tar sands pipeline will go down as one of this generation’s most monumental environmental victories. After more than 10 years of tenacious protests, drawn-out legal battles, and flip-flopping executive orders spanning three presidential administrations, the Keystone XL pipeline is in our rearview mirror. The project’s corporate backer—the Canadian energy infrastructure company TC Energy—officially abandoned the project in June 2021 following President Joe Biden’s denial of a key permit on his first day in office. But the path to victory wasn’t always clear for those fighting against the pipeline’s pervasive threats to climate, ecosystems, drinking water sources, and public health.”
Today, the dirty energy pipeline remains one of the foremost climate controversies of our time, with the latest twist being President Donald Trump’s 2025 rescission of Biden’s executive order that revoked the pipeline’s permit—despite a lack of interest from the would-be developer.
ER/AFP
