Sen. Joe Manchin suggests rebranding could bring back canceled Keystone XL pipeline

“The XL pipeline is something we should have never abandoned,” Manchin said Tuesday alongside Premier Jason Kenney of Alberta, where the petroleum pipeline would have originated. “Now, we wish we had it.”

Manchin said the “brand for the XL pipeline is probably gone” but added that it could be revisited.

“Can it be rebranded? Can it be rerouted? Can we do these different things? We need this product,” he said. “You all have a product that we have to have in order for us to meet the demand of our country, but your country, too, and the world.”

“I can’t guarantee you there’s a company up here that wants to reinvest again or if the administration is going to entertain that, but it’d be foolish not to,” he said.

President Joe Biden revoked permitting for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought crude oil from Alberta’s prolific oil sands to the U.S., on his first day in office. Biden’s order determined that the pipeline “disserves the U.S. national interest,” citing climate change.

Republicans have used the decision as a battering ram against Biden’s energy policies since well before the war in Ukraine began, arguing they’ve prevented oil and gas production from responding to high energy prices.

The administration has not publicly reversed course on the pipeline, but officials have been encouraging domestic oil producers to increase output since crude oil prices shot up over $100 per barrel following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The White House also wants to bring in more oil from Canada, but the administration does not support trying to bring back Keystone XL, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources.