E C O N O M I C S
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Edited by
Cristina LindbladOn the snowy prairies of western Canada, a tiny
town is grappling with the fallout from the 12-year
saga of the world’s most controversial oil pipeline.
On his first day as U.S. president, Joe Biden
signed an executive order rescinding TC Energy
Corp.’s permission to build the $8 billion Keystone
XL. The 1,210-mile pipeline was designed to carry
more than 800,000 barrels a day of Canadian oil
sands crude to refineries in the U.S. when it entered
service in 2023. It was also supposed to create
about 13,000 union jobs.
Biden’s decision may have fallen hardest on
the eastern Alberta farming town of Oyen, where
work on the project was already under way and
local businesses were reaping the rewards. Even
though Biden had pledged during his campaign to
cancel Keystone XL, the news still came as a shock
to the town’s mayor, Doug Jones. “I did not expect
to see that in the first hundred days,” he says.
In recent months, Oyen had been buzzing with
activity. Its population of 922 more than doubled
with the arrival of about 1,000 workers. Some
rented rooms in local homes, others bunked at
so-called man camps. All together, they injected as
much as C$4 million ($3.1 million) of extra spending
into the local economy every month, Jones figures,
helping counteract the drag from the pandemic.
Debmart Cafe & Convenience on Main Street,
a popular spot for sandwiches and eggs Benedict,
was reeling from Covid-19 restrictions in March,before the pipeline crews arrived. “We had to
lay everyone off when it first came into effect
that they shut everything down,” says owner Deb
Schiebelbein, adding that business had “at least
doubled” since the pipeline workers came.
The staff at Debmart would prepare dinners for
workers that they would pick up after their shifts.
The cafe also changed its schedule to take advan-
tage of the increased demand. “We opened Sundays
to accommodate the pipeliners, and they supported
us really well,” Schiebelbein says. Biden’s decision to
kill Keystone XL “wasn’t pleasant, but there really
isn’t too much a person can say.”
The president’s move could bring down the cur-
tain on a long-running drama that’s come to sym-
bolize the clash between environmentalists and the
oil industry. Green groups and celebrities includ-
ingMarkRuffaloandDarylHannahcampaigned
againstthepipeline,arguingit wouldpolluterivers
andindigenouslandsandworsenclimatechange
byspurringfurther developmentofCanada’s
high-carbon-emittingoilsands.
TheCanadianoilindustry,whichforyears
hashadto contendwitha pipeline shortage
that’sdepressedlocaloilprices,counteredthat
KeystoneXL was the safest and cleanest way to
deliver oil to the Gulf Coast refineries that are
equipped to handle heavy crude. The alternative
would be to have it travel on rail cars, which can
explode into massive fireballs in an accident. PHOTOGRAPH BY IAN WILLMS FOR BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEKA Tiny Town’s
XL Hopes
● Biden’s cancellation of a
controversial oil pipeline shocks
Alberta’s Oyen, where the
arrival of construction crews
bolstered businesses