Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Remember the Keystone XL pipeline? It could be coming back big time.

President Barack Obama vetoed the pipeline legislation in February 2015 and the Republican-backed bill failed to achieve an override quorum in the Senate. The controversial project would have linked Hardisty, Alberta, in Canada to Port Arthur, Texas, and transported roughly 800,000 barrels of heavy crude oil. Its critics had cited the environmental consequences as a major problem with the project.

Now, with Donald Trump the hours-old president-elect, pipeline builder TransCanada is reportedly already eyeing its new opening:

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Trump is no enemy of Keystone XL: During his campaign, he bragged the pipeline was "how we're going to make our country rich again" because "I want a piece of the profits."

But "Trump's plan could run into legal trouble as a taking of oil industry property, and would probably violate World Trade Organization agreements and Congress' exclusive constitutional authority to make decisions on taxes," Politico reports, citing experts who have weighed in. "It has also ruffled some feathers north of the border, with Globe and Mail columnist Jeff Jones writing that the likely Republican nominee's 'kooky' proposal 'sounds uncomfortably like nationalization.'"

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.