It was one of Joe Biden’s first moves as president (and a message to the country about how he would govern): closing the Keystone XL pipeline, a 1,200-mile crude oil project from Canada to Nebraska that would have transported thousands of workers until 830,000 barrels of oil per day.
Now President-elect Donald Trump reportedly wants to send his own message and Restart the projectand while bringing it back to life would pose numerous hurdles, oil workers are reportedly excited about the idea.
“It’s a breath of fresh air. “We’re on cloud nine,” said former Keystone Pipeline employee Bugsy Allen “Fox & Friends Weekend” Sunday.
“It will make a large difference in your energy costs, your food costs and the gas you put in your cars. It will actually be the first beginning of lowering everything… for the American people, from which we suffered so much in the last administration.
Regard:
Bugsy Allen, the laid-off Keystone XL pipeline worker, was asked how workers are doing after Trump reopened it
OMG it’s a breath of fresh air, we’re on cloud nine, the American people are going to see what energy will do for a country
($1.79) Gasoline is on the way pic.twitter.com/NbXurD0aAM
— @Chicago1Ray 🇺🇸 (@Chicago1Ray) November 24, 2024
The future of the pipeline has fluctuated between Republican and Democratic administrations: first Obama refused to approve it, then Trump came along in 2017 and put it back on track, and then the energy-hating Biden nuked it again. Trump is reportedly considering it a goal on the first day:
Trump believes restarting the 1,200-mile Canada-to-Nebraska crude oil project would reinforce the pro-oil message he conveyed during his campaign, people involved in the transition team’s discussions about the idea said. Trump also wants to show he can defy President Joe Biden, who reversed Trump’s initial approval of the project in 2017, which was fiercely opposed by the climate movement.
“That’s on the list of things they want to do on day one,” said one of the people familiar with Trump’s plan, who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The workers certainly want it to come to fruition. Here’s what pipeline workers laid off by Biden’s move said at the time:
Politico reports that President Trump wants to revive the Keystone XL pipeline.
Here’s what some of the pipeline workers fired by Joe Biden are saying:
“Let’s work immediately” and you will see how the price of everything drops. pic.twitter.com/vjlR59F5u6
— Daniel Turner (@DanielTurnerPTF) November 21, 2024
However, a lot has changed since Trump’s last term, and there are numerous hills to climb to get this thing started:
Calgary-based TC Energy no longer owns the pipeline system that the Keystone XL was intended to supplement. And the portions of the pipeline that TC Energy had put in the ground in anticipation of cross-border approval in both Canada and the United States have been unearthed. To replace this pipe, any company wanting to rebuild it would have to again seek local permits for the project.
It may not come back to life immediately, but even so, Trump would make it clear that there is a fresh boss in town and a fresh way of doing business, and that crippling our own energy production and prices is no longer standard practice for the Americans to boost operations.
Ultimately, elections have consequences.
