Most Americans now support a resurrection of the Keystone XL oil pipeline project for carrying oil from Canada to the United States, a new poll showed after the U.S. banned imports of Russian energy following Putin's war in Ukraine.
A total of 71 percent of Americans "favor very much" or "favor somewhat" U.S. President Joe Biden issuing an executive order to restart the construction of Keystone XL, according to an exclusive poll of Americans conducted by Maru Public Opinion for Postmedia.
The poll showed that most Americans would now approve President Biden issuing an order to "green light the restart of the building of the Keystone XL pipeline that would transport oil from Canada's oil sands region through the Midwest to refineries in Texas."
Support for Keystone XL was much lower in 2017 when 42 percent of Americans favored building the pipeline, while 48 percent were opposed, according to a national Pew Research Center survey from February 2017, which showed a stark partisan gap between support and opposition. A total of 76 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents favored building the Keystone XL pipeline, while about as many Democrats (74 percent) were opposed.
On his first day in office, President Biden rescinded the presidential permit to Keystone XL given by former president Trump, effectively killing the project.
In the new poll of Maru Public Opinion for Postmedia, 64 percent of Americans say Canada should be the country the U.S. should turn to for more oil supply if the price of oil is the same, compared to just 10 percent favoring either Venezuela or Saudi Arabia for replacing Russian supply.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, the top officials of the oil-producing province Alberta said that Canada's oil could replace American imports of Russian crude.
Last week, Canadian natural resources minister Jonathan Wilkinson told Reuters in an interview that Canada was looking for ways to increase pipeline flows of crude oil to its southern neighbor.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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