Keystone XL turns into early club against Biden

This story is part ofWatchingWashington, a regular dispatch from CBC News correspondents reporting on U.S. politics and developments that affect Canadians.

What's new

U.S. President Joe Biden's cancellation ofthe Keystone XL pipeline has become an early talking point against him from domestic critics of his administration and even from some allies.

A centrist Democrat from West Virginia, Sen. Joe Manchin, told Fox News he "respectfully disagree(s)"with Biden's decision. Manchin saidsimilar volumes of heavy crude will stillget shipped to the U.S. to be refined. He thinksit's safer in a pipeline than on trains.

"Wehave to have the heavy crude," hetold Fox's BretBaierTuesday night."I'd rather for it to come from Canada than I would from Venezuela."

His comments comeas numerous Republicans pointto the symbolism of Biden cancelling the pipeline on Day 1 of his presidency as a job-killing move in the first hours of his administration.

Here's one reason this is somewhat striking: Biden'spromise to kill the pipeline wasa potential campaign issue last year and it sat there virtually untouched.Even after Biden promised to end the Canada-U.S. project, Republicans simply didn't raise itmuch on the campaign trail.

They are now.

Keystone came up several times in recent Senate confirmation hearings for Biden's cabinet picks. Sen. Ted Cruz mocked Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigiegfor saying Biden's massive clean-infrastructure plan will create far more jobs than those lost in the construction of this pipeline.

"For those [laid-off pipeline] workers, the answer is: 'Somebody else'll get a job?'"Cruzsaid.

What's next

It's too early to tell whether Biden will actually be damaged politically by the chargehe's hurting fossil-fuel-industry jobs. The polling is a bit vague.

On the one hand, asurvey commissioned by the Alberta government byJDA Frontline Partners said that when Americans were told the project was already under construction, a strong majoritywanted itcompleted.

On the other, American political pollster Scott Rasmussenfound that more Americans supported Biden's decision on Keystone than opposed it.

So the broader political implications for Biden aren't yet clear. It may depend on whether he succeeds in his main energy objective:getting Congress to pass a massive $2 trillion plan to build clean infrastructure.

But when it comes to Keystone XL, there's been no sign that Biden, or the vast majority of Democratsaside from Joe Manchin, have any interest in backing down on the cancellation.

Manchin, it should be noted, has for years been a rare Washington Democrat to vocally defend Keystone XL.He's also adefender of his state's coal industry, a longtime recipient of oil-industry campaign donations, and he could play a key role on any future energy bill.

Manchin not onlyholds an important swing vote in the 50-50 Senate; he's also thetop Democrat onthe Senate's energy committeewhich his party is about to control.

How this affects Canada

Oil is Canada's No. 1 biggest revenue-generatingexportand Keystone XL was designed to simplify the shipment of 830,000 barrels per day from Alberta to refineries inthe U.S.

The project was also supposed to create thousands of jobs in the U.S. and Canada, primarily in construction. Immediately after Biden ended the project, pipeline company TC Energy Corp., cut1,000 jobs. It didn'tspecify how many of those jobs were in each country.

This project has become a fault linein the climate debate with advocates like Manchin, and past U.S. governmentanalyses, arguing the oil will keep being shipped anyway, while opponents targetKeystone XL as part of a longer-term strategy to stifle the expansion of the Albertaoilsands.