One of the first acts of the new Biden Administration is cancelling the permits for the Keystone XL Pipeline, a project of Canadian energy giant TC Energy that would have moved 800,000 barrels per day of heavy crude from Alberta to Cushing, OK, providing easier access to Gulf Coast refineries. The project was originally killed in the Obama Administration due to State Department objections, later to be revived and fast-tracked by President Trump. Cancelling the project, well into its construction, will cost 11,000 union construction jobs, the ongoing pipeline jobs and revenues, and $2 billion of future investment. //

HISTORICAL NOTE: Joe Biden is a long-standing opponent of domestic energy infrastructure. In 1973, a deadlocked Senate nearly blocked the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, sorely needed in reaction to the first OPEC embargo. Biden, then a back-bencher, joined the opposition. Vice-President Spiro Agnew broke the Senate’s tie vote, and the pipeline went in service in 1977. Sixteen billion barrels later, America remains free of OPEC domination, thanks in part to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. The boon to the economy, foreign policy, and the State of Alaska has been immeasurable.