Joe Biden’s decision to halt the Keystone XL pipeline will hurt America’s ties with Canada

Biden plans to halt controversial pipeline on his first day in office

WASHINGTON — North America’s perennial pipeline debate erupted anew Monday as president-elect Joe Biden’s Day 1 plan to kill off the Keystone XL project cast a pall over hopes for a fresh start to the Canada-U.S. relationship.

Critics cheered and champions fumed at word Biden’s first day in the White House would likely end — for now — a politically fraught plan to send more than 800,000 added barrels a day of Canadian bitumen to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Those in Washington who cultivate and monitor the attimes-fragile ties between the two countries wondered, publicly and privately, about what the decision might portend.

If nothing else, it likely points to the return of a more familiar cross-border dynamic, said Eric Miller, a Canada-U.S. expert and president of the D.C.-based Rideau Potomac Strategy Group.

“We can take from it that, as a going-in proposition, the Biden administration is probably not going to be inclined to work with Canada on things that Canada wants, but it will be happy to work with Canada on things that it wants,” Miller said.

“To some extent, this is a return to form, where Canada often finds itself in a position where it has to fight hard to get changes made.”

A hard fight, including in court should it come to that, is exactly what Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is promising.

“The United States government owes Canada the respect to at least sit down with us and talk about this vital project in the broader context,” said Kenney, whose government gave the project a $1.5-billion infusion last year.

Biden’s plan is outlined in transition documents seen by The Canadian Press. They suggest he intends to sign an executive order on inauguration day to rescind the presidential permit for the pipeline issued in 2019 by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The decision is less surprising than the timing. Biden’s campaign had already promised to block the project, but making it a symbolic Day 1 move — an effort to satisfy the combative progressive wing of the Democrats — stings.

Perrin Beatty, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, urged the incoming administration to think twice.

Such a decision “would strain relations between our two countries and waste an opportunity to work together on a shared U.S.-Canada strategy to fight climate change,” Beatty said in a statement.