President-elect Joe Biden plans to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, according to several news sources.
The decision delighted advocates of the so-called “Green New Deal,” but will disappoint Biden’s own political allies in the trade union movement, who had backed the pipeline for the thousands of jobs it would create.
As Breitbart News reported last year:
The Keystone XL pipeline would run from Canada’s oil sands in Alberta across the border and into Nebraska. From there, the oil would be pumped through existing pipelines to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. The project passed environmental reviews under the Obama administration, but was stalled due to opposition from environmental groups concerned about climate. (Supporters of the pipeline noted the oil would be extracted, regardless: the alternative was export to China.)
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on his third full day in office effectively giving the green light to Keystone XL, inviting it to re-apply for permits and instructing federal agencies to move the project along rapidly.
Biden, who is the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, promised in May that he would stop the Keystone XL pipeline “for good” if he was elected president.
Four labor unions — the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the International Union of Operating Engineers, the Laborers International Union of North America (LiUNA), and the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters — reached a project labor agreement (PLA) last August with TC Energy, the Canadian company responsible for the pipeline.- READ MORE
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