Sponsor of Keystone XL pipeline bails on project

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – The sponsor of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline has pulled the plug on the contentious project.

The move comes after Canadian officials failed to persuade President Joe Biden to reverse his cancellation of its permit on the day he took office.

Calgary-based TC Energy said it would work with government agencies to pull out of the partially built line, which was to transport crude from the oil sand fields of western Canada to Steele City, Nebraska.

Construction on the 1,200-mile pipeline began last year when former President Donald Trump revived the project after it stalled under the Obama administration.

It would have moved up to 830,000 barrels – or 35 million gallons – of crude daily, connecting in Nebraska to other pipelines that feed oil refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Biden canceled the pipeline’s border-crossing permit in January over longstanding concerns that burning oil sands crude could make climate change worse and harder to reverse.