Donald Trump calls for resumption of construction of Keystone XL pipeline abandoned under Joe Biden

US President Donald Trump said Monday that he wants to see construction work restart "now" on an oil pipeline between Canada and the United States, called Keystone XL, which was abandoned in 2021 at the start of his predecessor Joe Biden's term. "I thought today that the company (Canadian TC Energy, Editor's note) behind the Keystone XL pipeline project, viciously abandoned by the incompetent Biden administration, should come back to America and get it built - now!" the president wrote on his Truth Social network.

"The Trump administration is very different: easy permits, almost immediate start!" boasted the head of state, adding that if TC Energy was not up for it, another company could take over the project.

These statements come as Donald Trump threatens to impose 25% customs duties on products from Canada and Mexico in early March . Lower customs duties - 10% - have been announced for the Canadian energy sector. Canada alone accounts for 60% of US crude oil imports. The US president has also repeatedly raised the idea of ​​making his northern neighbour the 51st US state and threatened to use "economic force" to annex it.

The Keystone XL project, supported by Ottawa but criticized by environmentalists, was launched in 2008. Canceled for the first time under the presidency of Barack Obama because it was considered too polluting, it was put back on track by Donald Trump, during his first term, for economic reasons. The revocation of his predecessor's decree was one of Joe Biden's campaign promises, as part of his plan to fight climate change.

It had disappointed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who had committed to completing Keystone XL and other pipelines to transport Canadian oil to other markets and obtain a better price. TC Energy had announced the abandonment of the project in June 2021. With Keystone XL, the idea was to extend an existing pipeline, Keystone, which transports hydrocarbons from the province of Alberta, in western Canada, to several destinations in the United States.

Donald Trump, a notoriously climate skeptic, does not care about greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and continues to hammer home his campaign slogan from the White House: "Drill, baby, drill." He withdrew (as he did in his first term) from the Paris climate agreement and declared a "state of energy emergency" to boost oil and gas production in the United States , in particular with the aim of lowering prices for Americans.