Upon inauguration, the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden, took immediate executive action by signing 15 executive orders in one day. One of these orders called for the immediate cancelation of further developments in the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline¹, one of Biden’s most controversial decisions of his first day in office.

But, what is the Keystone XL pipeline? The project, originally proposed by the TransCanada energy company in 2008, is a 1,000+ mile extension of the original Keystone pipeline. The original pipe runs from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, down to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas and Louisiana². The new project would create a detour passing directly through the states of Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska, allowing for an extra 830,000 barrels worth of crude oil to be transported to oil refineries on a daily basis³.

The pipeline extension has numerous benefits for both countries. To begin with, the ability to efficiently transport such large amounts of oil between the two neighboring nations decreases the reliance on costly OPEC oil⁴. The logistical cost of foreign oil trade, and reduction of those expenses, would help provide American and Canadian consumers with cheaper gas prices, stabilizing the heavily inflated crude oil market. Furthermore, the construction of the pipeline would provide a temporary, but prosperous, amount of construction jobs to the US labor market⁵. Overall, the project has numerous economic benefits that would have a drastically positive impact on the labor and oil market in the US and Canada.

However, the environmental effects of the pipeline project are the main cause for concern by the Biden administration. To begin with, the price of the project, a total of $8 billion, is a direct contribution to fossil fuel development⁶. During his campaign, the President vowed to direct federal funding and programs to sustainable forms of energy, rather than the dated oil industry. Most notably, the type of crude oil that would be transported through these tubes called “tar sands oil”, has an incredibly dangerous environmental footprint. The oil is significantly thicker and more acidic than other oil types, thus, making the amount of corrosion and wear on the pipes greater. In fact, tar sands is nearly 3 times more likely to corrode it’s pipeline and contaminate the surrounding ecosystem⁷. In 2019, the original Keystone pipeline leaked almost 400,000 gallons of the tar sand oil directly in North Dakota⁸. Due to the high possibility of oil spills and contamination, environmentalists, especially in states where the expansion would take place, have voiced their concerns and rallied support against the construction of Keystone XL. Biden’s plans for climate change policy makes it not surprising that the pipeline’s permit for construction was cancelled.

Furthermore, controversy about the pipeline’s permits have been challenged before. In 2015, the Obama administration determined that the economic benefits did not outweigh the environmental damage caused by the expansion, revoking any permits to construct the pipeline in the United States. Once in office, Trump reversed this decision, citing the economic upheaval the pipeline would cause⁹. Regardless, in summer 2020, the Republican leaning Supreme Court ruled that the project could not begin without a deeper investigation into the environmental footprint of the project¹⁰.

Even though the Republican caucus has responded to the executive order by reinstating the job loss and economic effects of cancelling construction, the minimal downturn in the oil market is far less dangerous than the high possibility of oil spills, leaks, and contamination in delicate ecosystems and communities.