Keystone XL May Be Postponed Until the Next Presidential Mandate

The oil pipeline which has been in construction since 2008, named Keystone XL may be postponed until the next presidential mandate due to recent arguments between TransCanada and President Obama.

This comes with an increased amount of complaints from the unions partaking in the construction of the giant pipeline, one of which being the constant decrease in oil prices, coming down from 150$ a barrel to roughly 50$. This huge 60% price drop occurred since the federal application from TransCanada was filed with the construction in 2008.

The Keystone XL will run from Alberta all the way to Nebraska in order to take the rich oil sands all they way to the Gulf Coast and its refineries. The bill that should have given the power to the US government to approve this project was vetoed earlier this year by the President and if the next mandate will bring another US Democrat, the pipeline will most likely be halted entirely.

If the Republican Party along with its candidate Donald Trump will come to power, it won’t necessarily mean the immediate approval of the project the candidate considering a better price before giving his stamp of approval.

One of the risks that the halting of this project may hold is that it might bring reticence when it comes to future projects of this size, even if met with a richer economic environment. This is why the company is currently pushing more and more for the review of said project to be complete in a shorter period of time.

This current debate between the company responsible of the project and the US president, if resolved, will most likely make things easier for whoever is next in line for the White House, requiring either a stamp of approval or by simply refusing the project all-together.

Even though the scale of this project is tremendous, transport by pipeline is by far the safest way of managing the constant need of raw resources that oil refineries require on a day-to-day basis. But even if it is the safest way, its threat to environment is still great, even if not as great as transport by water. An oil spill will most likely bring environmental damage wherever it occurs, though on a reduced scale when compared to the infamous BP Oil spill.

As for the moment, the only thing that TransCanada is able to do now is sit and wait in order to see if the Keystone XL may be postponed until the next presidential mandate or if it will be cancelled completely, bringing the huge project to an immediate halt.

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