Record inflation, rising gas prices, and the Russia-Ukraine War have revived the Keystone XL pipeline debate. Some Republicans are now using these events to call out flaws in President Joe Biden’s energy policies.

“Literally, the first week in office, Joe Biden shut down the Keystone Pipeline, and we see gas prices skyrocketing,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said during an interview on FOX News. 

 “The pipeline is just a delivery mechanism,” said Press Secretary Jen Psaki during a White House press briefing. “It is not an oil field. So it does not provide more supply into the system.”

Does the Keystone XL Pipeline have any impact on gas prices?

Dr. Brent Sohngen, a professor of environmental and resource economics at the Ohio State University, has been following the pipeline politics for about a decade.

“The Keystone XL…probably would provide us in the US slightly lower oil prices than we might otherwise have,” Dr. Sohngen said. “But it wouldn’t be a very significant impact.”

What was the purpose of the pipeline?

“The Keystone XL was designed to basically bring more of that oil into the US and to create a more direct route for that oil to get into existing sort of pipeline networks,” Dr. Sohngen said.

Dr. Sohngen is talking about the original Keystone pipeline built-in 2005. It transports oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico through nine states–North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana.  

The XL line was expected to transport oil from Hardisty, Canada, to Steele City, Nebraska.  

How much of the pipeline is complete? 

According to TC Energy, the company behind the project, only 8 percent of the 1,179-mile pipeline has been built. 

Where would this oil go? 

Some of the oil would go to the Gulf of Mexico to be exported, and the rest would stay in the U.S. 

Companies sell to other countries for a more significant profit. At the same time, the U.S. buys oil from other countries at lower rates.

Pipeline proponents

Some proponents have said the pipe would get oil to the market quicker, create thousands of construction jobs and put America on a path to energy independence. 

Pipeline opponents

Environmentalists and some Native American tribes feared that oil spills from the Keystone XL pipeline “would have been devastating to the farms, ranches, and communities that depend on these crucial ecosystems,” according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

What impact does the president have on oil, gas prices?

Dr. Sohngen said presidents could step in, but their actions are limited. 

“They can do some things by releasing oil from the strategic petroleum reserve,” Sohngen said. “Presidents, you know, they have a bigger impact in the long term by, you know, setting the architecture by which, you know, we start to think about energy decisions. So, for instance, there’s a lot of emphasis on trying to move away from, you know, petroleum-based automobiles to electricity-based automobiles.”