Republican Presidential contender Donald Trump says he would approve TransCanada’s (TRP-T) Keystone XL pipeline if elected. “I would absolutely approve it, 100%, but I want a better deal,” Trump said at press conference at the Williston Basin Petroleum Conference in Bismarck, N.D.

The statement is a reversal of the Obama administration’s rejection of the pipeline last year. Obama said Keystone was not in the national interest of the U.S. The controversial pipeline had become a flashpoint for U.S. environmentalists.

Trump says he will ask TransCanada to renew its application for the pipeline, but he wants a bigger cut of the profits TransCanada would make from the pipeline. "I want it built, but I want a piece of the profits," Trump said. "That's how we're going to make our country rich again."

Construction of the $8-billion pipeline would benefit the U.S. economy by creating up to 40,000 jobs, TransCanada spokesman James Millar said in an email to BNN.

The pipeline would also benefit U.S. customers and refineries and the company will pay millions in property taxes on the pipeline route, he said.

“We believe Americans would rather use U.S. and Canadian oil through Keystone XL than continue the current practice of importing millions of barrels of oil every day from Venezuela and the Middle East.”

Trump made the comments just hours after securing enough delegates to clinch the Republican presidential nomination and just prior to delivering his first major energy policy speech. In the press conference Trump said he wanted the U.S. government to “get out of the way” of the energy sector and become energy independent.

“I want to be energy independent. I would say energy independence is what we all want, and we also want to sell our energy to other places that don’t have the great natural resources that we have,” Trump said.

In his speech Trump also promised to cancel the U.S. participation in the Paris climate change accord.