ROTHENBURGER: Keystone XL makes Ajax, TMX reviews look flawless in comparison

Keystone XL was supposed to become a shorter route from the tar sands to the Gulf Coast. It’s had a tumultuous, on-again, off-again history.

It would have been 1,897 kilometres long, carrying 830,000 barrels of crude from the Alberta tar sands through Saskatchewan and Montana to Nebraska where it would have connected into the original Keystone pipeline and continued south.

Kenny, in his wisdom, sunk $1.5 billion into the project to back up TC Energy and start construction on the Canadian leg. It created short-term prosperity for some Alberta towns but it was a foolish gamble.

The National Energy Board approved construction of the Canadian section of Keystone XL in 2010, by which time Phase 1 of the main Keystone pipeline was on stream.

Things quickly got bumpy as various state and federal bureaucracies got their mitts into it. Environmentalists complained, challenges were issued, the route was changed several times.

Opponents questioned whether it was in the U.S.’ “national interest.” The U.S. Senate approved Keystone XL in 2015. Along came Barack Obama, who nixed it shortly after, following up on Secretary of State John Kerry’s determination that, contrary to the Senate’s opinion, it wasn’t in the national interest.

But then, Donald Trump was elected and soon revived it, signing his own presidential permit to give it the green light. Unlike Biden’s Day One executive order this week, it took Trump four days. Legal challenges put a damper on that so Trump signed another order.

In March last year, Kenney defeated Rachel Notley and pledged Alberta’s financial stake in the project.

Biden defeated Trump last November and signed the project out of existence this past Wednesday.

Keystone XL put the R in roller coaster. Political football is another term that comes to mind. The fact that Biden was vice president under Obama and opposed Keystone XL from the start, and made a campaign promise that he’d kill it for good if elected president, should have given Kenney a clue. But Kenney, obviously, was banking on Trump winning re-election. Oops.

One wonders why any investor would plug billions into a project when the process is so screwed up. When a project is given life, killed off, resurrected and killed again.

Building pipelines is a dicey business at the best of times. We all know the story of how Kinder Morgan bailed on its own Trans Mountain pipeline due to “uncertainty” surrounding the expansion, forcing Justin to buy it up to keep it going.

It’s not just pipelines, of course. Developing mines is just as chancy. KGHM spent years trying to get Ajax approved, failed, and is trying again.

Ajax is an example of a project that should never have been allowed to start, and yet it refuses to go away. Whether you’re for such projects or against them, surely we could come up with policies and processes that are definitive and fair, where a proposal is either approved or it isn’t, once. It either happens, or it goes away forever. Doesn’t spend more than 10 years being batted around.

It’s not even over yet — lawsuits are sure to follow. The world will be fine without another pipeline, and the end of the tar sands can’t come soon enough, but there’s got to be a better way.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

—

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.

by Mel Rothenburger

ROTHENBURGER: Keystone XL makes Ajax, TMX reviews look flawless in comparison

Our Community