"The firm behind the Keystone XL pipeline officially scrapped the project on Wednesday, months after President Biden revoked a cross-border permit for the controversial pipeline and more than a decade after political wrangling over its fate began.
The pipeline, which would have stretched from Alberta’s boreal forests to the refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast, became the center of a broader controversy over climate change, pipeline safety, eminent domain and jobs. Those same concerns have spawned similar battles to stop pipelines in states including Montana, Minnesota and Virginia, part of an effort to keep fossil fuels in the ground.
The Keystone XL project also took on special significance because of the sea change in public and business attitudes toward climate change. The process of extracting bitumen-like oil from the thick tar sands consumes enormous amounts of energy — a combination of strip mining and underground steam injection — and exacerbates the impact on the planet’s atmosphere."
Brady Dennis and Steven Mufson report for the Washington Post June 9, 2021.
SEE ALSO:
"Keystone Pipeline, Symbol to Oil’s Foes and Friends, Is Now Dead" (Bloomberg)
