The Keystone XL pipeline project has been terminated
The Canadian pipeline company that had long sought to build the Keystone XL pipeline announced Wednesday that it had terminated the embattled project, which would have carried petroleum from Canadian tar sands to Nebraska.
The announcement was the death knell for a project that had been on life support since President Biden’s first day in office and had been stalled by legal battles for years before that, despite support from the Trump administration.
On the day he was inaugurated, Mr. Biden, who has vowed to make tackling climate change a centerpiece of his administration, rescinded the construction permit for the pipeline, which developers had sought to build for over a decade. That same day, TC Energy, the company behind the project, said it was suspending work on the line.
Read original full article
#Environmental
#Investment
#Oil
Atlantis Viewpoint
The Keystone XL pipeline project has faced years of sustained protests from environmental activists and organizations; Indigenous communities; and farmers, ranchers, and business owners along its proposed route due to its devastating environmental consequences. More than 90 leading scientists and economists have opposed the project, in addition to unions and world leaders such as the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and former president Jimmy Carter
According to a study from the EPA, the construction of the pipeline would have meant burdening the planet with an extra 178.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually. Enough emissions to undermine efforts to minimize global warming and prioritize clean energy like wind and solar. Leading climate scientist and former NASA researcher James Hansen has warned that fully exploiting Canada’s tar sands reserves would mean “game over” for our climate. In short, tar sands oil represents a major threat to our environment, and our best stance against it, as the rallying cry goes, is to “keep it in the ground.”
Fortunately, the project was finally cancelled, which means an exciting step toward. There are still further permits the Biden administration must revoke, including the Bureau of Land Management’s right-of-way permit and other oil pipelines - currently under construction - like Line 3. However, president Biden's decision to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline turns the page on a twelve-year fight over the energy future of the country. It sets the stage for a more prosperous future powered by clean energy.
We know transport, infrastructure, and large-scale industrial processes can all be powered by True Clean Energy sources, in effect an endless source of clean power. But firstly, we need to see a solid implementation of these sources of energy. We want to see more solar, wind, geothermal and tidal projects in U.S.A. and worldwide, that can generate clean electricity, green hydrogen and even fresh water. We must start working towards all of our transport, power and energy needs being sourced from True Clean Energy!
Anthony Swift - director of NRDC’s Canada project - couldn't have said it better “Keystone XL was a terrible idea from the start. It’s time to accelerate our transition to clean energy sources that will power a prosperous future."
