Ding Dong, the Keystone XL pipeline project is dead. The wicked project is dead.  The last straw was laid when President Biden dropped a house on it by denying it a needed permit.

The Canadian company behind the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline called it quits on the project Wednesday, ending a decadelong standoff over the $8 billion pipeline that promised to transport 830,000 barrels of crude oil across the American plains each day. The decision to end construction on the project, which was first proposed by Alberta-based TC Energy, then known as TransCanada, is a remarkable victory for environmental activists and indigenous groups, both of whom fought hard against an additional pipeline slicing south from Alberta, Canada down through Montana, South Dakota, and into Nebraska, where it would join up with existing pipelines that would carry oil to the Gulf Coast.

TC Canada’s decision to scuttle what amounted to an extension of a pipeline system that already exists comes on the heels of President Joe Biden’s cancellation of the company’s permit to carry out construction.

Perhaps more significant than this victory is what it portends for the future. There just isn’t much precedent for energy companies losing this kind of battle, but it seems likely that this will set a trend. This week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that despite the disruption to industrial activity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, people have introduced more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any point in the last four million years.

“We are adding roughly 40 billion metric tons of CO2 pollution to the atmosphere per year,” said Pieter Tans, a senior scientist with NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory. “That is a mountain of carbon that we dig up out of the Earth, burn and release into the atmosphere as CO2 – year after year.

“If we want to avoid catastrophic climate change, the highest priority must be to reduce CO2 pollution to zero at the earliest possible date.”

Reducing CO2 emissions to zero would not have been aided by pumping dirty Canadian tar sands oil through the Keystone XL pipeline, By itself, the death of the project won’t have much discernible impact, but it’s a starting point. It’s an indication that things have shifted and similar projects may meet a similar fate.

If you’re looking for something to give you a sense of optimism, this is a good place to start.