TC Energy Abandons Keystone XL Pipeline, Months After Biden Cancels Permit

TC Energy, the Canadian company that launched the Keystone XL pipeline, formally terminated the project Wednesday, more than four months after President Joe Biden canceled its permit on his first day in office.

As Breitbart News noted in January, Biden’s decision caused 1,000 workers to lose their jobs immediately, and “killed some 11,000 direct jobs that the pipeline’s construction was to have created, and an estimated 60,000 indirect jobs in secondary, related industries.”

The pipeline was approved by the State Department under the Obama administration, but the permit was withheld over objections from environmentalists, who did not want the oil to be extracted at all, because of climate change. President Donald Trump allowed the project to go ahead, but Biden campaigned against it.

Now the pipeline has been abandoned by TC Energy, which has given up hope. In a statement, the company said: “Construction activities to advance the Project were suspended following the revocation of its Presidential Permit on January 20, 2021. The Company will continue to coordinate with regulators, stakeholders and Indigenous groups to meet its environmental and regulatory commitments and ensure a safe termination of and exit from the Project.”

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm recently acknowledged that pipelines are the safest way to transport oil, as did Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

Biden’s decision outraged the unions that supported him, since the Keystone XL provided “good, paying, union jobs” he has promised from “green” energy. Climate change “czar” John Kerry claimed laid-off workers would find “better” jobs.

Secretary of State Tony Blinken struggled this week to explain why the Biden administration had approved the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Europe, but had canceled Keystone XL. He claimed Keystone XL was a “domestic” issue.