Keystone XL signs project labour agreement with US unions

North American energy company TC Energy has announced that Keystone XL has reached a project labour agreement (PLA) with four labour unions of the United States.

The PLA will inject millions of dollars in ‘middle-class wages’ into the US economy, while ensuring that the pipeline project will be built by the skilled workforce.

According to Bloomberg, the latest move could add political pressure on Joe Biden, who has threatened to rip up Keystone XL permits even as he courts ‘blue-collar workers’.

The recent agreements create a path for over 2,000 unionised workers to start building some of the pipeline project’s planned pump stations in the US.

The 1,947km Keystone XL pipeline would carry 830,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil from Alberta to the US Midwest.

It has been delayed for more than a decade by opposition from landowners, environmental groups and tribes.

TC Energy said that it is also working with labour to create a ‘Green Jobs Training’ programme. This programme helps the union members in acquiring the required skillset needed to work in developing the renewable energy sector.

Keystone XL president Richard Prior said: “We are proud to partner with these union trades and craft workers to ensure this pipeline will be built by qualified professionals with specialized skills to the highest safety and quality standards.

“We are especially proud of the new Green Jobs Training Programme, which is an investment in thousands of current and future union workers.”

On 30 July, US President Donald Trump issued a ‘Presidential permit’ to allow the existing TC Energy Keystone Pipeline to supply an additional 170,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Canadian crude oil into the US Midwest and Gulf Coast.

In a separate development, a federal appeals court in the US allowed Energy Transfer’s  $3.78bn Dakota Access Pipeline to continue transporting crude oil pending additional court proceedings despite a recent ruling against it in a lower court.