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President-elect Biden to end Keystone XL pipeline in fight on climate change

Biden is expected to soon reverse the efforts of the Trump administration and end a project proposed more than a decade ago

January 18, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. EST
A depot used to store pipes for TransCanada Corp.'s planned Keystone XL oil pipeline in Gascoyne, N.D., on Jan. 25, 2017. (Terray Sylvester/Reuters)

Signaling his commitment to quickly confront climate change, President-elect Joe Biden is planning to move within days to quash the controversial multibillion-dollar Keystone XL pipeline, according to two individuals familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it had not been announced yet.

The politically symbolic pipeline, promoted by the oil and gas industry since it was first proposed about 15 years ago, has drawn opposition because it would carry tar sands, or heavy bitumen, from the boreal forests of northern Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The energy used in extracting these molasses-like petroleum supplies would contribute heavily to climate change.