A leading Democratic senator is demanding US President Joe Biden reverse course and allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline expansion..Biden has been under mounting pressure as gas prices in the States have been soaring. Earlier this week it was announced the US would be releasing from strategic reserves 50 million barrels of oil to try and ease the rising costs..“I continue to call on President Biden to responsibly increase energy production here at home and to reverse course to allow the Keystone XL pipeline to be built which would have provided our country with up to 900,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada, one of our closest allies,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said in a statement..“To be clear, this is about American energy independence and the fact that hard-working Americans should not depend on foreign actors, like OPEC+, for our energy security and instead focus on the real challenges facing our country’s future.”.Biden was elected running on a campaign that promised to kill Keystone XL on his first day in office, and he did exactly that in February..At the time, Manchin reportedly sided with Republicans who urged the president to rethink canceling a permit for the pipeline, arguing that pipelines across the country “continue to be the safest mode to transport our oil and natural gas resources, and they support thousands of high-paying, American union jobs.″.“The cost they see every day. And every day they go to fill up is a dollar and a quarter more a gallon,” he said last week of the 30-year high inflation rate in the US..“Three twenty-nine, $3.39..“A gallon of milk is now $4 in many places. It’s taking a toll. And I hear it when I go to the grocery store or if I go to the gas station. They say, ‘Are you as mad as I am?’ and I say, ‘Absolutely,’ ” .Earlier this week, in one of the largest trade appeals in history, Calgary-based TC Energy demanded $15 billion from the US after Biden cancelled the Keystone XL expansion project even after it started..“The U.S. decision to revoke the permit was unfair and inequitable,” Bloomberg reported TC Energy said in its filing, blaming the U.S. for putting Keystone XL on a 13-year “regulatory roller coaster.”.The claim is being launched under provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement that allow foreign companies to challenge U.S. policy decisions..Alberta had billions of dollars tied up in the project, with $1.5 billion of taxpayers’ money handed to TC Energy already, along with $6 billion in loan guarantees..The Keystone pipeline runs from Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Texas..The new pipeline would have run from Hardisty, Alta. to Steele City, NE and carried 900,000 barrels of oil a day..Bloomberg said even if TC Energy is successful in it’s claim, they have no plans to restart the project..“We had all the permits and requirements in place to start construction on the line, and did so, and we worked with federal and state regulators in both countries for a very long period of time. This is just about recovering that destroyed value of investment,” said Richard Prior, senior vice president for liquid pipelines..The cancellation drew barely a murmur from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was livid..Kenney claimed when Biden cancelled Keystone XL, he broke several free trade regulations..“At the very least, I call upon the government of Canada to press the US administration to compensate TC Energy, and the Alberta government, for billions of dollars of cost incurred in the construction of Keystone XL to date,” Kenney said in a letter to Trudeau in January..“These costs were incurred on the assumption the United States had a predictable regulatory framework, and based on the presidential permit authorizing the Keystone XL border crossing which was installed in the summer of 2019..“For the United States to retroactively cancel the permit on the basis of which investments were made is a clear violation of the investor-protection provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which were extended as a result of your government’s successful negotiation of the Canada-US-Mexico Trade Agreement.”
A leading Democratic senator is demanding US President Joe Biden reverse course and allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline expansion..Biden has been under mounting pressure as gas prices in the States have been soaring. Earlier this week it was announced the US would be releasing from strategic reserves 50 million barrels of oil to try and ease the rising costs..“I continue to call on President Biden to responsibly increase energy production here at home and to reverse course to allow the Keystone XL pipeline to be built which would have provided our country with up to 900,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada, one of our closest allies,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said in a statement..“To be clear, this is about American energy independence and the fact that hard-working Americans should not depend on foreign actors, like OPEC+, for our energy security and instead focus on the real challenges facing our country’s future.”.Biden was elected running on a campaign that promised to kill Keystone XL on his first day in office, and he did exactly that in February..At the time, Manchin reportedly sided with Republicans who urged the president to rethink canceling a permit for the pipeline, arguing that pipelines across the country “continue to be the safest mode to transport our oil and natural gas resources, and they support thousands of high-paying, American union jobs.″.“The cost they see every day. And every day they go to fill up is a dollar and a quarter more a gallon,” he said last week of the 30-year high inflation rate in the US..“Three twenty-nine, $3.39..“A gallon of milk is now $4 in many places. It’s taking a toll. And I hear it when I go to the grocery store or if I go to the gas station. They say, ‘Are you as mad as I am?’ and I say, ‘Absolutely,’ ” .Earlier this week, in one of the largest trade appeals in history, Calgary-based TC Energy demanded $15 billion from the US after Biden cancelled the Keystone XL expansion project even after it started..“The U.S. decision to revoke the permit was unfair and inequitable,” Bloomberg reported TC Energy said in its filing, blaming the U.S. for putting Keystone XL on a 13-year “regulatory roller coaster.”.The claim is being launched under provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement that allow foreign companies to challenge U.S. policy decisions..Alberta had billions of dollars tied up in the project, with $1.5 billion of taxpayers’ money handed to TC Energy already, along with $6 billion in loan guarantees..The Keystone pipeline runs from Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Texas..The new pipeline would have run from Hardisty, Alta. to Steele City, NE and carried 900,000 barrels of oil a day..Bloomberg said even if TC Energy is successful in it’s claim, they have no plans to restart the project..“We had all the permits and requirements in place to start construction on the line, and did so, and we worked with federal and state regulators in both countries for a very long period of time. This is just about recovering that destroyed value of investment,” said Richard Prior, senior vice president for liquid pipelines..The cancellation drew barely a murmur from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, while Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was livid..Kenney claimed when Biden cancelled Keystone XL, he broke several free trade regulations..“At the very least, I call upon the government of Canada to press the US administration to compensate TC Energy, and the Alberta government, for billions of dollars of cost incurred in the construction of Keystone XL to date,” Kenney said in a letter to Trudeau in January..“These costs were incurred on the assumption the United States had a predictable regulatory framework, and based on the presidential permit authorizing the Keystone XL border crossing which was installed in the summer of 2019..“For the United States to retroactively cancel the permit on the basis of which investments were made is a clear violation of the investor-protection provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which were extended as a result of your government’s successful negotiation of the Canada-US-Mexico Trade Agreement.”
