Trump wants to revive controversial Keystone XL pipeline project

US President Donald Trump wants to revive the Keystone XL oil pipeline project, which was blocked by his predecessor Joe Biden, despite resistance from environmentalists. Biden has "treated the operators of the pipeline very badly," Trump said on his social media mouthpiece Truth Social . "But the Trump administration is very different - easy permits, almost immediate start! (...) We want the Keystone XL pipeline to be built!" If necessary, another operator could take over, wrote the Republican.

The project, which was actually shelved years ago, involved the 1,900-kilometer extension of the Keystone Pipeline, which went into operation in 2010 and runs from the Canadian oil stronghold of Calgary to the USA. Oil extracted from tar sands was to be pumped through the pipeline to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

But environmental activists, who pointed to the danger of climate-damaging greenhouse gases and feared leaks, were successful in their years-long protest against the oil industry: Although part of the pipeline already exists in the south, the operators and the government of the Canadian province of Alberta called off the XL project in June 2021. This ended a long and tough conflict that also occupied courts and politicians in the USA and Canada.

The decision of the company and the Canadian province came as little surprise at the time. US President Joe Biden had revoked the construction permit granted by his predecessor Trump after taking office. In doing so, he followed the line of former President Barack Obama, who had already banned the project due to environmental concerns - even before Trump first took office in 2017.