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PIERRE, SD News that Canadian energy company TC Energy has disconnected the Keystone XL pipeline sends a mixed reaction across South Dakota – from frustration to joy.
The last and possibly the last twist in the development of a pipeline that was to branch off the western half of the state as the line crossed from Canada to Montana to a transfer station in Nebraska was applauded by tribal voices who opposed the project on environmental and cultural grounds.
“I would like to thank the President of the United States, Joseph Biden, for understanding the damage caused to this planet by projects like this one and for canceling the necessary permit to cross the medical border with Canada”, we read in a press release published on Wednesday, June 9 by Harold Frazier. , president of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, one of nine tribal nations wholly or partially encompassed by the borders of South Dakota.
But the project’s cancellation – announced by TC Energy, a private energy company, on the same day – shocked junior state senator Mike Rounds, who called KXL’s disappearance a “huge mistake” in a statement. sent to journalists on Thursday 10 June.
“This is going to hurt us both economically and environmentally for years to come,” Rounds said, noting that the pipeline’s parent company had aimed for zero emissions and that the cumulative effect of the end of the pipeline would mean more than petroleum transported by rail and road.
“It is clear that the president listened to the loudest left voices in the room,” Rounds argued.
TC Energy said they would scuttle the project on Wednesday. Biden, who promised to cancel the controversial pipeline during the election campaign, obtained a permit needed for the pipeline to cross the United States on the first day of his term in office.
Days after the announcement, residents of the western town of Philip, South Dakota say, workers who had moved to the area to build the pipeline had already left.
South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg had joined a lawsuit to overturn the Biden administration’s decision on the pipeline.
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