This is part one of a series exploring the impacts of President Joe Biden’s cancellation of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. MURDO, S.D.—For over a decade, Jeff Birkeland had been waiting expectantly in the hope that the Keystone XL pipeline would finally materialize and bring with it a much needed boost to his rural community. His dreams were dashed overnight. Birkeland is the CEO of West Central Electric Cooperative, which is located in Murdo, a small city in South Dakota with a population of less than 1,000. Trans Canada, now known as TC Energy, the company that commissioned the Keystone XL pipeline, first approached his company back in 2008. In 2011 he signed a contract with TC Energy to build a transmission line and two substations that would serve power along the Keystone XL route. West Electric was meant to start producing power for pump stations along the XL route as early as …