From: brewnoser2@gmail.com   
      
   2014:   
   https://i.cbc.ca/1.5362615.1573951417!/fileImage/httpImage/image   
   jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_780/476144217.jpg   
      
   2015:   
   In his remarks, Obama argued that the practical value of the pipeline had been   
   wildly overstated — by both sides. Keystone XL, he said, would be neither "a   
   silver bullet for the economy, as was promised by some, nor the express lane   
   to climate disaster    
   proclaimed by others."   
      
   If that sounds familiar, it's because President Barack Obama said almost the   
   same thing when he blocked Keystone in November 2015. "America is now a global   
   leader when it comes to taking serious action to fight climate change," Obama   
   said. "And frankly,    
   approving this project would have undercut that global leadership."   
      
   John Kerry — secretary of state in 2015 and now Biden's climate envoy —   
   put an even finer point on the significance of Keystone in his own statement   
   at the time. "The United States cannot ask other nations to make tough choices   
   to address climate    
   change if we are unwilling to make them ourselves," he said.   
      
   2016-2019:   
   Trump, who actively sought to undermine attempts to fight climate change,   
   revived the project. But the political frame that was placed around Keystone   
   XL in 2015 never went away, while legal challenges to the project continued.   
      
   By the fall of 2019, most of the major Democratic candidates for the   
   presidency had pledged to rescind Trump's order on their first day in office.   
   Last May, Biden insisted that he would kill the pipeline.   
      
   2021:   
   The executive order that rescinded Keystone XL's permit on Wednesday states   
   that "the United States must be in a position to exercise vigorous climate   
   leadership in order to achieve a significant increase in global climate action   
   and put the world on a    
   sustainable climate pathway."   
      
   The new president of the United States described his inauguration on Wednesday   
   as a moment to move forward. But moving forward properly requires a reckoning   
   with the past. In Joe Biden's case, that reckoning came for the Keystone XL   
   pipeline.   
      
   Bill McKibben, one of the activists who led the campaign against Keystone,   
   wrote in the New Yorker on Thursday that he was grateful for Biden's decision   
   and never doubted that the new president would follow through. "Even today,"   
   he wrote, "Keystone is    
   far too closely identified with climate carelessness for a Democratic   
   president to be able to waver."   
      
   So the second death of Keystone shouldn't have surprised anyone. It might have   
   seemed rude of Biden to not wait a day or two to allow Canadian officials to   
   make a fuller presentation on the pipeline's behalf, but that only would have   
   delayed the    
   inevitable.   
      
   SO, for Kenney and Alberta . . . .   
      
   In the here and now, any debate about Keystone will have to consider whether   
   its additional capacity is even needed at this point. In the meantime, Premier   
   Kenney wants Justin Trudeau's government to impose trade sanctions on the   
   United States if Biden    
   refuses to revisit his decision.   
      
   Stephen Harper could be ungracious in his defence of Keystone — he famously   
   said that approving it was a "no brainer" — but his government doesn't seem   
   to have ever publicly threatened to impose sanctions if Obama rejected it. Nor   
   does it appear    
   anyone called for sanctions when Obama officially killed the project shortly   
   after the Trudeau government came to office.   
      
   Sanctions out of spite?   
      
   This idea of reprisals seems to have originated recently with Jack Mintz, a   
   Canadian economist, who also conceded that imposing tariffs could be akin to   
   "cutting off our own nose to spite our face."   
      
   Notably, Erin O'Toole's federal Conservatives have not joined the premier in   
   calling for sanctions. Kenney — whose government is polling poorly and whose   
   party is being out-fundraised by the opposition — is spoiling for a fight.   
      
   He has seized on the fact that federal officials did not respond to Biden's   
   decision in particularly strong terms — and the Liberals may not have struck   
   the right tone for those listening in the Prairies.   
      
   And for Canadians throughout the country . . . .   
      
   Perhaps Biden thought he was doing his neighbours a favour by ripping the   
   Band-Aid off quickly.   
      
   The project's fate seemed to be sealed years ago, but it haunts us still. And   
   now, with strident words from Alberta Premier Jason Kenney about a trade war,   
   it could haunt Canadian politics indefinitely.   
      
   Or, Canadian leaders could decide that it's time for them to move forward, too.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)