WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th November, 2020) Natural Law Energy (NLE), a group of Native American tribes, will invest up to $1 billion for ownership shares in the Keystone XL Pipeline, the pipeline operator TC Energy said in a press release.
"This partnership will facilitate important input and guidance from NLE on the project," Keystone XL President Richard Prior said in the release on Tuesday. "It will also enable the realization of long-term, meaningful economic benefits derived from an attractive return of and on NLE's investment."
The agreement will supplement more than $600 million in indigenous supplier and employment opportunities expected to be created through the project's construction.
"This represents our first investment in Canada's energy infrastructure and we are excited to partner with TC Energy as together, we will ensure that the pipeline is held to the highest levels of environmental and social responsibility," Nekaneet First Nation Chief and NLE Energy President Alvin Francis said in the release.
Keystone is an oil pipeline system that moves a crude oil from the Canadian province of Alberta to the US states of Illinois, Oklahoma and Texas. The first three phases of the system are currently operational, however, the construction of the fourth phase, better known as Keystone XL, which is planned to transport oil to Nebraska, has become a partisan political issue in the United States.
The Obama administration blocked the pipeline project for eight years. The Trump administration authorized construction while the campaign of presumed President-elect Joe Biden announced plans to halt the project.
In September, US Supreme Court rejected a request from the Trump administration and TC Energy to dismiss a lower court ruling blocking further construction of the pipeline because of a violation related to a water-crossing permit.
