Keystone pipeline developer plans to ‘engage’ with Trump

The company behind the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline plans to “engage” with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration in its ongoing fight to build the project.

In a brief statement Wednesday, mere hours after Trump was declared the election’s winner, TransCanada Corp. said little about its strategy, but vowed to fight on.

{mosads}“TransCanada remains fully committed to building Keystone XL,” spokesman Mark Cooper said in the statement.

“We are evaluating ways to engage the new administration on the benefits, the jobs and the tax revenues this project brings to the table.”

President Obama a year ago rejected the company’s permit to build Keystone XL, which would run from the oil sands in Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast.

But Trump made approving Keystone a key pillar of his energy agenda, and plans to ask TransCanada to renew its application for a cross-border pipeline permit.

Keystone was central to the national debate over energy and environmental policy. It was a bellwether for a choice between continued reliance on oil imported from a close ally and moving away from fossil fuels.

Congressional Republicans tried numerous times to force approval of the project, but Obama always blocked their attempts.

Trump has also said that he wants the United States to get some of the profit from Keystone, though he has not specified how that would work.

“I want the Keystone pipeline, but the people of the United States should be given a significant piece of the profits,” he said in May.

“That’s how we’re going to make our country rich again, and it’s how we’re going to make America great again.”

TransCanada is also trying to recover billions of dollars from the federal government through the North American Free Trade Agreement for rejecting Keystone. The company has also sued the administration to try to force approval.