Biden to discuss disputed pipeline with Trudeau

U.S. President Joe Biden plans to discuss long disputed Keystone XL oil pipeline with Cana's prime minister after he revoked its permit on his first day in office, and construction halted Wednesday.Biden is expected to speak with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over contentious pipeline later Friday. It will be first call with a foreign leer after Biden took oath of office. 1,700-mile (2,735-kilometer) pipeline was planned to carry roughly 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to Texas Gulf Coast, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.

Biden has said leaving Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would t be consistent with his ministration's ecomic and climate imperatives. Trudeau raised Keystone XL as a top priority when he spoke with Biden in a phone call in vember. project is meant to expand critical oil exports for Cana, which has third-largest oil reserves in world and is America’s number one source of foreign oil.

Trudeau and Biden are politically aligned and re are expectations for a return to rmal relations after four years of Trump, but pipeline is an early irritant as Biden has long said he would cancel it. First proposed in 2008, pipeline has become emblematic of tensions between ecomic development and curbing fossil fuel emissions that are causing climate change. Obama ministration rejected it, but President Donald Trump revived it and has been a strong supporter.

premier of oil-rich Canian province of Alberta called Biden's decision an “insult” and said federal Canian government should impose tre sanctions if it is t reversed. Trudeau took a conciliatory tone. Trudeau said in a statement that he was disappointed but ackwledged president’s decision to fulfill his election campaign promise.

(Im Credit: AP)