Former Vice President and current Democratic Party presidential candidate Joseph Biden has committed to rescinding President Trump’s permit allowing the Keystone XL oil pipeline to cross the Canadian border into the United States if elected. In 2008, TransCanada filed paperwork for a Keystone XL pipeline, extending from Canada through Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska, and connecting with the existing Keystone pipeline that would move 830,000 barrels per day of oil to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast. Because Keystone XL would cross the U.S. border, the State Department determines whether the project is in the national interest. After numerous delays and court actions, President Obama denied the permit in 2015, saying that it was not in the national interest because the United States was a global leader in fighting climate change. President Trump overturned that decision in 2017.
