A senior adviser to two former U.S. presidents delivered a stark message Friday to Canadians hoping for the resurrection of the Keystone XL pipeline: get over it.

The project is gone and not coming back, said John Podesta, who was White House chief of staff in the final years of Bill ClintonB次元官网网址檚 second term and a senior counsellor to Barack Obama.

B次元官网网址淚 think KeystoneB次元官网网址檚 dead,B次元官网网址� Podesta told an online panel discussion hosted by Canada 2020, a prominent think-tank with deep ties to the federal Liberal party.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office that rescinded predecessor Donald TrumpB次元官网网址檚 decision to let the pipeline project cross the Canada-U.S. border.

B次元官网网址淗eB次元官网网址檚 withdrawn the permit, heB次元官网网址檚 not going back. He made that commitment,B次元官网网址� Podesta said of the president.

B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檝e just got to get over it and move on and find these places on clean energy where we can co-operateB次元官网网址� I think thereB次元官网网址檚 no turning back at this point.B次元官网网址�

Podesta was joined by Gerald Butts, a former principal secretary to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau whoB次元官网网址檚 now vice-chairman at the political-risk consultancy Eurasia Group.

Butts was less declarative about Keystone XL and acknowledged the impact the decision will have on a Canadian economy thatB次元官网网址檚 heavily dependent on the health of the Alberta oilpatch.

But he agreed the time has come to move on.

B次元官网网址淭hereB次元官网网址檚 no changing the current administrationB次元官网网址檚 mind,B次元官网网址� Butts said.

B次元官网网址淲e should spend as much time as possible on the things where we agree and minimize our disagreements, as most productive relationships do.B次元官网网址�

The expansion, first proposed in 2008, would have ferried more than 800,000 additional barrels a day of diluted bitumen from Alberta to refineries and ports along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Its demise, Butts said, has more to do with an B次元官网网址渁stronomical increaseB次元官网网址� in domestic oil and gas production in the U.S. in the intervening years than anything Canada could ever say or do.

B次元官网网址淧residents Trump, Obama and Biden had something that no president really since Eisenhower, maybe even Truman, has had at their disposal when it comes to oil and gas, and that is choices,B次元官网网址� he said.

B次元官网网址淭heyB次元官网网址檝e exercised those choices to the detriment of the Keystone pipeline and to the broader Canadian economy.B次元官网网址�

BidenB次元官网网址檚 critics, meanwhile, show no signs of planning to give up the fight.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, whose provincial government is invested in Keystone XL to the tune of about $1 billion, has all but declared war, promising legal action and calling on the federal government to consider B次元官网网址減roportionate economic consequences.B次元官网网址�

Republicans on Capitol Hill, particularly those representing Midwest states with thousands of jobs dependent on the project, have also continued to question the presidentB次元官网网址檚 priorities.

The Keystone XL decision quickly focused attention on the potential fates of two other prominent cross-border pipelines, both owned by Calgary-based Enbridge Inc.

One is Line 3, which crosses the Canada-U.S. border in Minnesota and links the Alberta oilsands with the westernmost tip of Lake Superior. ItB次元官网网址檚 set for a $9.3-billion replacement.

The other, Line 5, picks up where Line 3 ends and runs through the Great Lakes to Sarnia, Ont. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants Line 5 shut down, an order Enbridge is fighting in court. It would rather replace a portion of the pipe.

The White House has not signalled a direction on those projects except to say they are B次元官网网址減art of what our climate team is looking at and assessing,B次元官网网址� in the words of press secretary Jen Psaki.

That may reflect the competing interests that are likely at work within the Biden administration itself, said James Lindsay, senior vice-president at the Council on Foreign Relations.

B次元官网网址淭his is a case in which you have elements of the Biden coalition or constituency, in essence, at odds,B次元官网网址� Lindsay told a briefing last week with the Washington Foreign Press Center.

Climate hawks want pipelines shut down to limit U.S. dependency on fossil fuels, while labour leaders and economic experts argue in favour of good, sustainable jobs, he said.

Proponents also argue that since both Enbridge projects involve replacing existing lines, the case for allowing them to proceed should be easier to make, he added.

B次元官网网址淭he challenge for a Biden administration is the reality that even when you want to work with close partners, there are going to be issues over which you disagree,B次元官网网址� Lindsay said.

B次元官网网址淵ou want to work with others that means to some extent you have to acknowledge their interests. But at times your own interests may take you in a different direction.B次元官网网址�

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 12, 2021.

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