Trudeau Touts Trump's Support for KXL, Sparking Fears of Pipeline Resurrection

by mobanmarketin NEWSon 01/10/2020

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touted U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s support for the Keystone XL pipeline to an audience of business leaders and oil company executives in Calgary, Alberta—the heart of Canada’s oil industry—on Wednesday.

“If Keystone XL is ever proposed again the massive and sustained opposition to its approval will be like nothing we’ve seen.”
—David Turnbull,
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“He actually brought up Keystone XL and indicated that he was very supportive of it,” Trudeau told members of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce of his conversation with Trump after the election, according to Reuters. “I will work with the new administration when it gets sworn in […] I’m confident that the right decisions will be taken.”

Trump has repeatedly and vocally expressed support for Keystone XL, among many other fossil fuel projects.

During his talk in Calgary, Trudeau also characterized as a “major win” for workers his administration’s approval last month of the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and Enbridge’s Line 3 project.

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(Environmentalists, on the other hand, characterized the approval of two additional tar sands pipeline projects as a “betrayal” of Trudeau’s campaign promises to fight climate change.)

The embattled Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport tar sands oil from Alberta to Texas, was finally rejected by President Barack Obama in 2015 after years of protest and campaigning from a wide coalition of activists and citizens.

“Keystone XL would imperil countless communities as well as our climate, and President Obama was absolutely right in finally rejecting it last year,” said Oil Change International’s David Turnbull to Common Dreams. “The movement to stop Keystone is one of the most inspiring and powerful collections of landowners, ranchers, Native Americans, and concerned citizens all across the county that we’ve ever seen. If Trump tries undo President Obama’s wise decision, this movement won’t be standing idly by. In other words: Bring it on.”

“It’s not clear that the market conditions even support a re-application from [Keystone XL owner] TransCanada,” Turnbull added, echoing recent news reports, “but if Keystone XL is ever proposed again, the massive and sustained opposition to its approval will be like nothing we’ve seen. One only need to look to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s inspiring opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline for a taste of what’s to come.”

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