Staff Reports
In a burst of nostalgia for energy independence, former President Donald Trump is calling for the Keystone XL Pipeline to rise from the ashes like a phoenix… or perhaps more aptly, like a well-heeled oil rig ready to churn out the goods. Stating that “the company building the Keystone XL Pipeline that was viciously jettisoned by the incompetent Biden Administration” should return to American soil and get to work, Trump argued that it’s high time for action. After all, he recalled, the Trump Administration facilitated “easy approvals” and swift starts, unlike the current regime which seems more adept at shuttering projects than green-lighting them.
Since Biden’s first day in office—a day that many see as a surprise attack on American energy—he put a nail in the Keystone coffin via executive order. TC Energy, the pipeline’s operator that now resembles a scorned ex, decided to take their business elsewhere and founded a new company, South Bow Energy, presumably to distract themselves from the pain of rejection. The company, in a rather polite fashion, proclaimed they’d “moved on,” as if they just needed some distance to heal from the breakup with the Keystone project.
Meanwhile, TC Energy is left trying to claw back over $15 billion from the government for the torturous heartbreak of canceled plans. The anti-pipeline brigade, which includes landowners, Native American tribes, and a troop of environmentalists, continues to launch their attacks on Keystone as unnecessary and detrimental to the march toward greener energy solutions. Yet, one can’t help but chuckle at the irony: while dreaming of clean air, they’ve halted a project that promised to pump nearly 830,000 barrels of Canadian crude oil daily—enough to fuel countless vehicles and ensure that tank prices don’t skyrocket.
Trump Wants the Keystone XL Pipeline to Restart 'Now'. There's Just One Problem. https://t.co/LPDKKQgXFa
— Robert Porter (@PlainOlderBob) February 27, 2025
In 2017, Trump had given the pipeline the green light, which proceeded to run into legal roadblocks reminiscent of a game of whack-a-mole, only this time the mallet is ecological concern wrapped in feel-good rhetoric. The Biden campaign made it clear that the pipeline was destined for the scrapheap, setting the cancellation in stone sooner than anyone could have imagined.
Amidst this drama, Trump is not just dwelling on lost opportunities; he’s keeping the door open for other companies to step in should TC Energy continue to frolic in the cornfields of Canada. The final kicker comes from studies suggesting that had the project proceeded, it would have created up to 59,000 jobs and injected between $3.6 and $9.6 billion into the economy. One has to wonder whether the current administration is prioritizing environmental goals over job creation, or perhaps just flaunting the lofty ideals that come crashing down with rising gas prices.
