• US President Biden facing pressure to halt further oil pipelines

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    • Post Author

      Patrick Lavery

      Combustion Industry News Editor


The Financial Times has looked at the dilemma facing US President Joe Biden as he comes under pressure from activists to halt fossil fuel-related infrastructure. While Mr Biden revoked the permit for the well-known Keystone XL oil pipeline project on his first day in office, he has not intervened in the cases of other less well-known pipelines, such as Enbridge’s Line 3 and Line 5 projects, and the Dakota Access pipeline, leaving it instead to courts to decide. This has led to Bill McKibben, co-founder of climate pressure group 350.org, to say that Mr Biden’s “climate credibility is on the line”, arguing that federal action must be taken to halt pipeline development. Even though there have been some successful court challenges to pipelines on the part of activists in the last year, that 25,700 and 70,800 kilometres of oil and gas pipelines respectively have been built in the USA between 2015 and 2019 is testament to the scale of the industry and the continued demand for its products the activists are facing. Mr Biden will have one eye on keeping the support of activists and another on allowing for the short-term health of the oil and gas sector – a difficult balancing act.