Trump reopens door to building Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines

Pipes for TransCanada’s planned Keystone XL pipeline are stored in Gascoyne, N.D. The U.S. House has voted to approve the proposed project, which would allow crude oil to flow from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

WASHINGTON (Diya TV) — President Trump on Tuesday moved to revive oil pipeline projects that were blocked by former President Barack Obama, a victory for energy firms whose agenda’s were often threatened by Obama’s environmental policies.

Trump’s order represents another swift reversal of an action taken by his predecessor, Monday, President Trump withdrew from a major 12-nation trade pact that was a priority of Obama’s.

But whether or not the Keystone Pipeline will ever be built remains to be seen. President Trump said the project would be open for renegotiation, and said he would demand it be built using American steel. “I am very insistent that if we’re going to build pipelines in the United States, the pipe should be made in the United States,” he said.

TransCanada, the new owners of the project, had been planning to use some American steel in the pipeline’s construction, but it remains unclear how much Trump’s demand will impact the price of the project.

For more than a year, Obama officials had procrastinated in making a final decision on whether or not to approve construction of one of the pipelines, the Keystone XL.

After a review by the State Department, which had jurisdiction because the project crossed the U.S.-Canada border, Obama announced in 2015 that he had determined the project was not in the national interest, in part because it would undercut U.S. leadership on fighting climate change. The former president also cited the decline in oil prices and low unemployment in the states along the pipeline’s 1,179-mile route.

Trump also reversed an Army Corps of Engineers decision last month to deny Energy Transfer Partners’ request to extend the Dakota Access pipeline under a section of the Missouri River that included a reservoir providing drinking water to the region.