The Story:
Joseph Biden made a statement to the website Politico Monday with regard to the Keystone XL pipeline, a statement that shows that oil is one of the policy issues likely to be of great importance as the November vote approaches.
The Statement:
A Biden administration would rescind a permit President Donald Trump issued, allowing the Keystone XL oil pipeline to cross the Canadian/US border. Such a rescission would in effect kill the project, which has been very controversial for years. If completed, the project could carry 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Canada to the US. Much of that would continue southward to the Gulf Coast for export. The plan plays a role in the Trump administration’s conception of the US as a major energy-exporting power.
TransCanada first proposed the XL, an extension on the existing Keystone system, in 2008, the year Barack Obama was elected President. Over the following years, President Obama seemed to take the view that so long as the line was reworked to avoid an ecologically sensitive region in Nebraska, it would be unobjectionable. And TransCanada agreed to the re-routing.
The Thing to Know:
Biden’s statement indicates that he may in general, as President, take a harder line on dealing with the oil & gas industries than that of the Obama administration.
