Developers officially scrap Keystone XL pipeline project

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TC Energy, the firm behind the Keystone XL pipeline, officially scrapped the project on Wednesday, months after President Biden revoked a cross-border permit for the controversial pipeline and more than a decade after political wrangling over its fate began," Brady Dennis and Steven Mufson report for The Washington Post. "The pipeline, which would have stretched from Alberta’s boreal forests to the refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast, became the center of a broader controversy over climate change, pipeline safety, eminent domain and jobs. Those same concerns have spawned similar battles to stop pipelines in states including Montana, Minnesota and Virginia, part of an effort to keep fossil fuels in the ground."

Anti-pipeline activists and many Democratic lawmakers lauded the news; one activist told the Post that it was a sign that protests against "Big Oil" work. Republican officials and petroleum industry officials criticized Biden for rescinding the pipeline's border permit on his first day in office, saying he essentially guaranteed the death of a project that would have provided thousands of construction jobs. "However, with most of the pipeline construction complete, including the fully operating southern leg, relatively few jobs are still at stake," the Post notes.