The failure of the Keystone
XL project demonstrated the
challenges of building new
pipelines in the U.S. and Canada amid galvanized environmental groups and delivered a
blow to oil-and-gas companies
that now must rely on aging
infrastructure.
Protesters targeted Keystone XL, which Canada’s TC
Energy Corp. abandoned
Wednesday, and other
pipelines for more than a decade, hoping to choke off fossil-fuel usage by making it
harder to transport. The
success with Keystone XL already has emboldened environmentalists, who in recent
weeks have turned their attention to other pipelines in
the U.S. and Canada.
But the U.S. and Canada still
rely on pipelines to transport
fossil fuels that underpin commerce, transportation and
heating and cooling. As pipelines become increasingly difficult to build, the countries will
become more dependent on
older infrastructure that is vulnerable to disruptions. The
shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline last month after it was attacked by hackers highlights
the potential impact caused by
unexpected disruptions to the
current network.
“Clearly, we’re relying on
the infrastructure we currently
have. The question becomes, as
we think about filling future
demand, and we need to repair
or replace old infrastructure,
how are we going to handle
it?” said Amy Myers Jaffe, a
research professor at Tufts
University’s Fletcher School.
Global oil demand is projected to peak in coming years,
which could mean projects like
Keystone could eventually
outlive their utility, Ms. Jaffe
said. “We’re not building for
the 1950s, we’re building for
the 2030s.”
In the past two years, at
least four multibillion-dollar
pipeline projects that drew
protests have been canceled or
delayed after encountering
regulatory and political roadPlease turn to page B2