Senior Canadian officials want a chance to make their case for the Keystone XL pipeline after reports surfaced that President-elect Joe Biden will cancel it.
Alberta Province Prime Minister Jason Kenney said Monday that he will seek compensation if reports that Biden plans to cancel the pipeline as soon as he takes over the US presidency are true. Biden’s plan is outlined in transition documents reviewed by Canadian media.
“We hope that President-elect Biden will show respect for Canada and when he least sits down to talk to us,” Kenney said.
Andrew Bates, a spokesman for Biden, also said Monday that the transition team had no comment on the pipeline. A person familiar with the project pointed out Monday that the document mentioned by the Canadian press was a draft of a slide produced a few weeks ago. Despite the fact that it indicated a specific time to take the measure, everything that appears there “could not happen the first day,” said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he lacked authorization to officially testify about The issue.
The 2,735-kilometer (1,700-mile) pipeline would transport approximately 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
The pipeline, first proposed in 2008, has become emblematic of the tensions between economic development and the decrease in pollution from the burning of fossil fuels that is causing climate change. The administration of President Barack Obama rejected it, but President Donald Trump reactivated it and has strongly backed it. It is already under construction.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the Keystone XL one of his top priorities when he spoke to Biden on the phone in November. The project aims to expand Canada’s crucial oil exports, whose reserves are the third largest in the world.
Trudeau and Biden are close and largely agree on their political views, but the pipeline is expected to soon be a source of friction in bilateral relations, as Biden has said he will cancel it.
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