It was one of Joe Biden’s first moves as president (and a message to the country on how he would rule): shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline, a 1,200-mile Canada-to-Nebraska crude project that would have employed thousands of workers and transported up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day.
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Now President-elect Donald Trump reportedly wants to send his own message and restart the project, and although bringing it back to life would present numerous hurdles, oil workers are reportedly ecstatic over the idea.
“It’s a breath of fresh air. We’re running on cloud nine,” former Keystone Pipeline worker Bugsy Allen said on “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Sunday.
“It will make a big difference as far as your energy cost, your food cost, your gas that you put in your cars. It is actually going to be the primary start of bringing everything… down for the American people that we have suffered so much in the last administration.”
Watch:
Fired Keystone XL Pipeline worker Bugsy Allen was asked what the feeling among workers now that Trumps opening it back up
OMG, it’s a breath of fresh air, we’re running on cloud nine, the American people are gonna see what energy will do for a country
($1.79) gas is on its way pic.twitter.com/NbXurD0aAM
— @Chicago1Ray 🇺🇸 (@Chicago1Ray) November 24, 2024
The future of the pipeline has gone back and forth between Republican and Democrat administrations, with Obama first refusing to approve it, then Trump coming in 2017 and putting it back on track, then energy-hating Biden nuking it once more. Trump reportedly considers it a first-day goal:
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Trump believes declaring the 1,200-mile Canada-to-Nebraska crude project back on the table would drive the pro-oil message he delivered in his campaign, said people involved in the transition team discussions about the idea. Trump also wants to show he can defy President Joe Biden, who reversed Trump’s initial 2017 approval of the project, which was strongly opposed by the climate movement.
“It’s on the list of things they want to do first day,” said one of the people familiar with Trump’s plan, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Related: Much Too Late, the Biden Administration Admits Canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline Was a Mistake
MOTR, Ep. 18: My Thoughts on Biden’s Casual Cruelty Over Killing American Jobs
Newly Unemployed Keystone XL Pipeline Worker Drops a Reality Bomb on Both Biden and Buttigieg
Workers sure want to see it come to fruition. Here’s what pipeline workers who were laid off by Biden’s move said back in the day:
Politico is reporting that President Trump aims to revive the Keystone XL pipeline.
Here’s what some of the pipeline workers Joe Biden laid off have to say:
“Put us to work right now” and you will see the price of everything go down. pic.twitter.com/vjlR59F5u6
— Daniel Turner (@DanielTurnerPTF) November 21, 2024
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Much has changed since Trump was last in office, however, and there are numerous hills to climb to get this thing off the ground:
Calgary-based TC Energy no longer owns the pipeline system that the Keystone XL was intended to complement. And the portions of the pipeline that TC Energy had put in the ground in both Canada and the United States in anticipation of the cross-border permit approval have been dug up. Replacing that pipe would require any company that wants to rebuild it to again obtain local permits for the project.
It may not come back to life immediately, but even so, Trump would be making it clear that there’s a new boss in town and a new way of doing business, and crippling our own energy production and driving up prices for Americans is no longer standard operating procedure.
After all, elections have consequences.
