Biden Blocking Keystone Threatens to End Mega Pipelines Era
By Gerson Freitas Jr., Rachel Adams-Heard and Ellen Gilmer | January 22, 2021
Joe Biden’s move to block the $9 billion Keystone XL project is the clearest sign yet that constructing a major new pipeline in the U.S. has become an impossible task.
The incoming president has pledged to reshape the U.S. energy sector and accelerate the transition from fossil fuels, and the cancellation of the proposed link to Canada’s oil sands will be one of his first big environmental actions.
Even before Biden’s inauguration Wednesday, the oil and gas industry was on its back foot when it came to building major new infrastructure. Despite Donald Trump’s pro-fossil-fuel policies, energy companies such as Williams Cos. and Dominion Energy Inc. have been forced to scrap new projects in the face of stiff opposition.