The current methods the Biden administration is looking into in order to bring in more oil from Canada is doing it via rail and already existing lines and pipelines.
The WSJ reports that Canadian officials and oil-industry analysts say expanding the existing Keystone pipeline network would offer a longer-term and more efficient solution to the existing problem.
Analysts say that rail is an inefficient mode of transportation because it is expensive and increasing pumping at existing lines may not be feasible because most are at or near capacity.
The Keystone XL pipeline would be able to carry 830,000 barrels a day of Canadian crude from Alberta, Canada to Nebraska. Once in Nebraska, the pipeline would meet up with the existing Keystone pipeline, and then on to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
However, the White House continues to downplay the effect the project would have on the energy prices being experienced by Americans.
“While the U.S. continues to engage with a variety of producing countries to address the current supply imbalance we are seeing, the Keystone XL pipeline would have done little to nothing in addressing that supply,” a White House spokesman said.
Recently, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said on MSNBC that the Biden administration is not looking at authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline because they are not looking at “permanent solutions to immediate short-term problems”.
Additionally, Brian Deese, an economic advisor to President Biden, also recently said that “The only viable path to energy independence… is to reduce the energy intensity of our economy overall. And ultimately, to reduce it to zero and get ourselves to a position where we’re no longer reliant on fossil fuels.”
On Joe Biden’s first day in office, he signed an executive order revoking the construction permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.
In response to the revocation of the permits by Joe Biden on his first day as U.S. President, Jason Kenney the Premier of Alberta wrote a statement echoing concern over Biden’s plans to revoke the project.
“Doing so would kill jobs on both sides of the border, weaken the critically important Canada-US relationship, and undermine US national security by making the United States more dependent on OPEC oil imports in the future.”
Adding that oil-producing countries like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia do not share the same commitment as Canada and the United States “to environmental stewardship, combating climate change, or North American energy security”.
