The crunch at the gas pump exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to calls in conservative circles to restart the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. But those calls may be nothing more than a pipe dream.
The cross-border, multibillion-dollar project fell victim to partisan politics in the early days of the Biden administration, when President Joe Biden, in one of his first acts, signed an executive order halting production of the pipeline stretching from the Canadian borderthrough the Dakotas to refineries in the Gulf Coast.
Soaring gas prices raised hope the administration may revisit the decision to mothball the project. It gained even more traction on Monday when Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the financial squeeze at pumps could be alleviated if the project was restarted.
"We could turn this around in less than a year," he said. His comments came as crude prices surged to almost $140 a barrel.
