On his first day in office, new United States President Joe Biden signed a presidential order revoking approval of the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline, which would have run from Alberta to Nebraska and carried 800,000 barrels of oil per day. Though the KXL pipeline was proposed in 2008 and approved by the Canadian government in 2010, it was rejected by former president Barack Obama during his administration — it was former president Donald Trump who brought it back from the dead in 2017.
Albertans and other Canadians who supported the pipeline understandably feel betrayed; the Alberta government put $1.5 billion down on the project. It has been underway for years, and 1,000 people employed in its construction are now about to lose their jobs. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in an interview with Global News that Biden’s revocation “[showed] disrespect” to Canada, that it violates the Investor Protection Provisions of NAFTA, and that it is “part of a highly coordinated and well-funded campaign to landlock Canadian energy.” Kenney called on the federal government for retaliation against the U.S.A. in the form of trade sanctions. His shortsightedness is impressive; not only would a trade war with the U.S. likely do nothing but compound the blow to the Canadian economy dealt by the loss of the pipeline, but, somehow, Kenney has managed to take a decision made in the long-term interest of the entire planet personally.
Even without the KXL pipeline, Canada is expected to export a record-breaking amount of oil to the U.S. in 2021, and it’s not like the KXL pipeline is the only one under construction. However, any new pipeline — especially one as big as the Keystone XL — will only encourage Canada to continue milking the oil sands, severely disincentivizing any redirection of the energy industry toward sustainable energies like wind, hydro, and solar power. Oil may be Canada’s largest export, but it doesn’t have to be. And while we can’t know Biden’s true motives — maybe he really does just want to landlock Albertan oil as Kenney seemed to imply — he has framed the decision as one made to push the U.S. away from fossil fuels and into the use of energy sources with a lighter environmental impact. This change is something that Biden has committed to literally on day one. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bought the Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5 billion in 2018 and expressed disappointment about Biden’s decision to halt the KXL pipeline earlier last week.
Rather than whining about Biden revoking the approval granted by Donald Trump, it’s time for Canada to take responsibility for our role in the climate crisis and the damage that the oil industry causes to ecosystems across the country; we need to stop leaning into oil just because it’s the easiest token to trade for a seat at the adult table in terms of the global economy. That Canada should need to be corralled into anything resembling environmental responsibility by the United States is, frankly, embarrassing. Though Canada pushed for a goal of no more than a 1.5? increase in global warming when the Paris Agreement was being adopted in 2015, we currently produce far more than our fair share of greenhouse gas emissions, in large part due to our continued development of the oil sands.
Hopefully, Biden will continue to distance the U.S.A. from not only fossil fuels as a whole, but from Canada’s bad decisions about them, and in turn, push the Canadian government in the same direction.
