“A report that the Biden administration is weighing greater imports of Canadian oil is putting a renewed focus on the canceled Keystone XL pipeline and whether it would have made any difference with today’s tight oil supply,” Energywire recently reported.
Ever since boycotts started blocking Russian petroleum products, social media has been rife with memes that blame rising gasoline prices on the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline — “So, if shutting down Russia’s pipelines will hurt their economy, wouldn’t shutting down ours hurt our economy? Asking for a buddy.”
Most of the criticism comes from people who recycle half truths, including former Vice President Mike Pence, who claimed: “Gas prices have risen across the country because of this administration’s war on energy — shutting down the Keystone pipeline,” and Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, who said: “Biden shut off the Keystone pipeline.”
Here’s what really happened: No one shut down, canceled or shut off the Keystone pipeline. It is fully operational, delivering 590,000 barrels of tar-sands oil from Canada to U.S. refineries every day.
What some pipeline advocates think is the “Keystone pipeline” is a 1,700-mile “shortcut” called Keystone XL, or KXL. It would have sliced through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma to the Texas Gulf Coast, delivering 830,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day. Many residents of those states fought fiercely against the pipeline cutting through their land.