Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is welcoming U.S. President Donald Trump’s calls to build the Keystone XL pipeline, a project cancelled by the previous U.S. administration that would have transported Alberta oil to refineries on America’s Gulf Coast.
Trump expressed renewed interest in building the pipeline in a Feb. 24 post on his Truth Social media platform, saying the company building the pipeline was “viciously jettisoned” by the previous administration under Joe Biden. The firm “should come back to America, and get it built –NOW,” he said.
The Trump administration is promising “easy approvals” and an “almost immediate start,” the president said, adding, “We want the Keystone XL Pipeline built!”
Smith echoed Trump’s comments in a Feb. 25 post on social media platform X, saying lower fuel prices would benefit Americans.
“Agreed, President Trump. That project should have never been cancelled,” Smith wrote. “Let’s also scrap these inflationary tariff ideas and focus on getting shovels in the ground right away!”
Trump’s comments come as his tariff reprieve for Canada nears its March 4 deadline. The U.S. president is threatening to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada over border security concerns, and a reduced levy of 10 percent on Canadian oil and gas. Trump has previously said the United States doesn’t need Canadian oil or other goods such as vehicles and lumber.
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Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe also cited Trump’s latest comments as a reason to drop the tariff threat.
“The path to continental energy dominance is to increase non-tariff North American trade,” Moe wrote in a Feb. 25 post on X. “This includes the construction of new pipelines like Keystone XL.”
The United States is the largest consumer of Canadian oil and gas. It received nearly 97 percent of Canada’s crude oil exports in 2023, with 87 percent coming from Alberta, the country’s largest oil producer. Saskatchewan was the second-largest contributor, providing nearly 9 percent of the oil exported south of the border.
The Keystone XL project was proposed in 2008 as an extension to the existing Keystone pipeline network. The 1,947-kilometre pipeline would have carried roughly 830,000 barrels of crude per day from Hardisty, Alta., to Steele City, Nebraska.
The project, which faced opposition from U.S. landowners, indigenous groups, and environmentalists, was first rejected by U.S. President Barack Obama in 2015. Trump attempted to resurrect the project during his first term, but it was stalled by lawsuits.
The project was ultimately suspended on Jan. 20, 2021, when then-President Joe Biden revoked the presidential permit for the Keystone XL border crossing, citing the need to “advance environmental justice,” and arguing the project would “not serve the U.S. national interest,” based on an analysis carried out under the Obama administration.
Then-Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in a Jan. 20, 2021, statement his government was “deeply disturbed” about the project’s cancellation, and described the consequences of the decision as “devastating.” The pipeline project would have brought roughly $2.4 billion to Canada’s GDP and approximately $30 billion in tax and royalty revenues, according to Alberta government estimates.
Smith has championed Alberta as a reliable energy supplier to the United States in diplomatic efforts to avert the tariffs. She described the province as a key ally to help America achieve energy and AI dominance in its competition with China.
Jack Phillips and Reuters contributed to this report.
