Trump urges pipeline firm to revive Keystone

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s campaign said that if elected president, he will ask Calgarybased pipeline company TransCanada Corp. to re-submit its proposal for the stalled Keystone XL pipeline.

That detail was included in the highlights package distributed by his campaign for a major economic speech today, although the speech itself made no mention of the pipeline.

Reviving the project, rejected by U.S. President Barack Obama, has been Republican party policy — although Trump has occasionally suggested he might seek a deal that’s more financially beneficial for the U.S.

TransCanada has taken legal action against the U.S. government: it recently filed for NAFTA arbitration and is seeking $15 billion in damages, claiming the rejection was arbitrary and politically driven.

Trump’s speech included an array of tax reductions on everything from businesses to personal estates to child-care costs; reaffirmed his plan to renegotiate or walk away from NAFTA; and promised to repeal Obama’s climate-change regulations, withdraw from the global climate deal,and replace Obama’s landmark health reform.

The campaign released a highlights package for the speech that included the phrase: “Ask TransCanada to renew its permit application for the Keystone pipeline.”