UPDATE - US president signs orders on controversial pipelines

ADDS CANADIAN REACTION

NEW YORK (AA) - President Donald Trump signed executive orders Tuesday allowing the completion of the controversial North Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines.

During his election campaign, Trump promised to “unleash” the U.S.’s energy potential and indicated he backed the projects.

The $8 billion, 1,900-kilometer (1,180-mile) Keystone XL is intended to carry crude from Canadian tar sands to U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast but was vetoed three times by former President Barack Obama.

The North Dakota Access pipeline, worth $3.7 billion, would stretch from the oil-rich Bakken formation in North Dakota and carry 470,000 barrels of crude through South Dakota and Iowa to Illinois.

The North Dakota pipeline is opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe that sued the government in July on grounds the pipeline threatened water resources and sacred sites. Last month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied a request by the company building the pipeline to tunnel under the Missouri River.

The Canadian government welcomed Trump’s resurrection and approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

“My reaction is that it [will] be very positive for Canada – 4,500 construction jobs and a deepening of the relationship across the border on the energy file,” Canadian Natural Resources Jim Carr told reporters, as reported by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

Even the fact that Trump said he wanted a “renegotiation” of the deal with TransCanada, the company behind the pipeline, couldn’t dampen the Canadian government’s enthusiasm. The pipeline will carry oil from Canadian oilfields in the province of Alberta into the U.S.

“As an Albertan, it’s a great decision for Canada and Alberta,” Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, said, as reported by the CBC. “The province needs jobs.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was “disappointed” after the project was rejected by Obama in 2015.

Trump also signed another executive order Tuesday to expedite the regulatory process to overcome environmental hurdles.