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That connection was not a good thing for Keystone. Entirely lost was TC Energy’s emissions progress and willingness to meet dozens of state demands for mitigation.
There will now be desperate attempts by the Alberta and federal governments to catch Biden’s ear — not easy to do amid a sea of worries, including the security of his own inauguration and tension over Trump’s final days.
Biden may care very little, if at all, about the emissions control gains in both the oilsands and in the Keystone project, which promises carbon-neutral operations by 2023.
The president-elect is preparing to launch a $2-trillion climate action plan. Cancelling a handy Canadian pipeline is a simple symbolic action for the moment.
Premier Jason Kenney can’t blame this one on Ottawa. He didn’t even try.
The feds have been behind the project. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he raised approval as a first priority when he and Biden talked last Nov. 9, six days after the U.S. election.
Kenney backed Keystone last March with a $1.5-billion equity stake and loan guarantees up to $6 billion.
That was three months before Biden made his anti-Keystone declaration; but still, his opinion was already well known.
“The Kenney government’s stake in Keystone was always a gamble — a political gamble — that Trump would be re-elected,” says Marc Henry, Calgary pollster and political analyst.
“Biden has been clear he doesn’t support it and will kill it. Now the question will be whether Albertans think Kenney’s bet was a risk worth taking or a fool’s wager. It’s going to cost him politically.”
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