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Biden revoked a permit for the pipeline which would transport
830,000 barrels a day of carbon-intensive heavy crude from
Canada's Alberta to Nebraska. It was part of a flurry of Biden's
executive orders aimed at curbing climate change.
In a letter to fellow Democrat Biden, the West Virginia senator
said that even without the pipeline, the oil would still find
its way to the United States by rail and truck, and pointed to
U.S. data showing those methods result in more spills than
pipelines.
"Pipelines continue to be the safest mode to transport our oil
and natural gas resources and they support thousands of
high-paying, American union jobs," Manchin said.
Opponents of TC Energy Corp's pipeline project say building such
infrastructure would lock in decades of dependence on oil,
making it harder to transition to clean energy.
Manchin said he supports "responsible" energy infrastructure
development including the Mountain Valley pipeline, which would
take natural gas from Manchin's state to Virginia.
That project, led by Equitrans Midstream Corp, is one of several
pipelines that have been delayed by regulatory and legal fights
with states and environmental groups.
Fourteen attorneys general, led by Austin Knudsen of
oil-producing Montana, also urged Biden in a separate letter to
reverse his decision on the Keystone permit.
Manchin's support for big pipelines underscores the difficulty
that Biden could have moving wide-ranging climate legislation
through Congress given Democrats have only the slimmest possible
majority in the Senate.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
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