In a social media post this week, US President Trump suggested that the Keystone XL pipeline project could be “awoken from the grave,” without providing further details or clarifying whether the remark was connected to an ongoing tariffs negotiation with Canada.
This is not the first time Trump has tried to revive this project that was first cancelled by president Barack Obama in 2015 following relentless people-powered pressure. In 2017, Trump signed an executive order in support of KXL. However, the project collapsed again after Biden revoked Trump’s permit in 2021 on his first day in the White House. TC Energy terminated the project for good later that year.
350.org has spent more than a decade fighting this project alongside Indigenous nations, landowners, and communities along its route in Canada and the US. Leaders within the global climate justice organization made it clear that if Trump is serious about reviving Keystone XL, the movement that fought this project successfully before will make sure it never sees the light of day:
Atiya Jaffar, 350 Canada Lead, says:
“Trump’s attempted revival of Keystone XL doesn’t land in a vacuum: Prime Minister Carney is already pushing new tar sands pipelines and rolling back the climate progress our movement fought hard to win. But Keystone XL has died more than once – and each time, it’s been Indigenous land defenders, local communities, and climate advocates who stopped this project in its tracks. As climate-driven wildfires and heatwaves continue to sweep Canada and the US, the cost of fossil fuel dependence has never been clearer. Building Keystone XL would mean pouring fuel on the flames of the climate emergency. I’ve spent over a decade in this fight. People power killed Keystone XL before. We’ll do it again.”
Candice Fortin, 350 US Campaigns Manager, says:
“Keystone XL is not a zombie that keeps coming back on its own – it’s a pipeline that Trump keeps trying to dig back up, and that the people of this continent keep burying. Threatening to revive it now, tied to a trade deal with no further details, tells you everything about how this administration treats energy policy: as a bargaining chip, not as a national infrastructure that has to answer to the well-being of the people.”
ENDS
Notes to the editor:
- Keystone XL was first proposed in 2008, and has faced strong opposition since then. The climate movement named it a critical climate bomb: if built, it would unlock as much as 181 million tons of CO2 every year – almost the same as the annual emissions of Argentina.
- Its route would cut through Indigenous treaty lands without consent, force ranchers and farmers off their own properties, and threaten crucial water resources and biodiversity along its path.
- Keystone XL would transport bitumen from the Canadian tar sands to the US. Tar sands oil is one of the most polluting fossil fuels in the world: research estimates it produces around 17% more greenhouse gas emissions than the average refined crude oil.
- 350.org has played a pivotal role in the opposition against Keystone XL since 2011, helping train activists and organizing campaigns and rallies against this project.
- It was 350.org’s collective push alongside Indigenous land defenders and people across the country that led to President Obama’s cancellation of the project in 2015 and Biden’s actions against the project in 2021.
- Send us an email if you would like access to photos of such actions.