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The cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline permit was a bad decision because it negatively affects Alberta.
Alberta is known for using oil and gas to supply the energy sector across the country.
According to nrdc.org, “the Keystone XL pipeline extension was designed to transport the planet’s dirtiest fossil fuel to market – fast. An expansion of the company’s existing Keystone Pipeline System, which has been running since 2010, would dramatically increase the capacity to process 168 billion barrels of crude oil locked up under Canada’s boreal forest.”
In addition to this, Keystone would be transporting 830,000 barrels of Alberta tar sands oil per day to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
Getting rid of Keystone will make the process of transporting oil slower.
An area of Alberta that will be very negatively affected by this decision is Fort McMurray, which has quite a few oil and gas companies. Some people think it was a good decision to cancel Keystone because it’s protecting the environment by getting rid of pollution.
What they don’t realize is that if a train is used to ship oil to the United States, it’s possible there could be a derailment or a spill, which is harmful to the environment. Also, trains spread pollution just by running.
The cancellation also comes at a very bad time because Alberta’s economy is not in the best shape due to COVID-19. Jobs are being lost and at this time people need a source of income.
To protect Alberta’s economy, Biden should have waited to put this decision into action, or he could have done it gradually by laying out the steps of cancelling the permit and how it would affect Canada.
If he did this, Canadians could have prepared themselves.
To help out Albertans, the money put into Keystone should be reimbursed back to taxpayers. So even though they lose out on Keystone, at least they have some extra money in their pockets.
Since Biden cancelled Keystone, Jason Kenney, Doug Ford and Scott Moe, the premiers of Alberta, Ontario and Saskatchewan, want to press the United States and have a conversation with him about why the decision was made so quickly without any consultation.
All three premiers want Trudeau to stand up to Biden about this issue.
Even though Biden made the decision to cancel Keystone, some blame can be placed back on Premier Jason Kenney. Some say it was an unwise decision on Kenney’s part to invest so much money into Keystone without knowing who was going to win the presidential election.
Although the environmental impacts will not be felt with building such a massive piece of infrastructure, it hurts both Alberta’s and Canada’s economy and eliminates 1,000 jobs for those who were building it.
