Probably the least surprising news to hit Alberta politics this month is today’s reports that incoming American President Joe Biden will revoke the Presidential Permit approving the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline on the first day of his presidency.
Biden promised months ago that he would cancel the permit, so it comes as no surprise. But it marks another huge blow to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, who invested a huge sum of his own political capital and Albertans’ real financial capital into the project.
While Keystone XL has sucked up a large amount of oxygen in provincial politics over the past few years, completion of the Alberta-to-Texas oil pipeline depended almost entirely on the re-election of Donald Trump in November 2020 – an outcome that was never a sure bet.
That was the bet that Kenney made when his United Conservative Party government invested $1.5 billion of public funds into the TC Energy Corporation pipeline project and promised $6 billion worth of loan guarantees. Because of the secrecy surrounding the details of the agreement it remains unclear how much of the loan guarantees have been implemented.
For the Kenney government, it is now all about political posturing, which usually means blaming the federal government in Ottawa and eco-socialists and green-leftists abroad, and trying to justify to Albertans the billions of public dollars were just lost in this foolhardy investment.
