Biden won't reverse Keystone XL decision, says ex-Obama adviser
A senior adviser to two former U.S. presidents delivered a stark message Friday to Canadians hoping for the resurrection of the Keystone XL pipeline: Get over it.
The project is not coming back, said John Podesta, who was White House chief of staff in the final years of Bill Clinton's second term and a senior counsellor to Barack Obama. “I think Keystone's dead,” Podesta told an online panel discussion hosted by Canada 2020, a prominent think-tank with deep ties to the federal Liberal party.
U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office that rescinded predecessor Donald Trump's decision to let the pipeline project cross the Canada-U.S. border.
“He's withdrawn the permit, he's not going back,” Podesta said of the president. “We've just got to get over it and move on and find these places on clean energy where we can co-operate.”
Podesta was joined by Gerald Butts, a former principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who's now vice-chairman at the political-risk consultancy Eurasia Group. Butts was less declarative about Keystone XL and acknowledged the impact the decision will have on a Canadian economy that's heavily dependent on the health of the Alberta oilpatch.
“There's no changing the current administration's mind,” Butts said. “We should spend as much time as possible on the things where we agree and minimize our disagreements, as most productive relationships do.”
Its demise, Butts said, has more to do with an “astronomical increase” in domestic oil and gas production in the U.S. than anything Canada could ever say or do.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, whose provincial government is invested in Keystone XL to the tune of about $1 billion, has vowed legal action and called on the feds to consider “proportionate economic consequences.”
Republicans, particularly those representing Midwest states with thousands of jobs dependent on the project, have also continued to question the president's priorities.