Biden Admin Quietly Admits What We All Have Been Saying About Cancellation of Keystone Pipeline
In a report quietly published at the end of 2022, Joe Biden’s Department of Energy revealed the president had killed tens of thousands of jobs when he ended the Keystone XL pipeline project with the stroke of a pen.
While stating that it believed “the high-end figure overstates jobs,” the DOE acknowledged that some studies showed between 16,149 to 59,468 temporary jobs created by the project, though not all of those were lost by its cancellation.
The report also stated that the study “estimated that the construction of the KXL pipeline would contribute $3.4 Billion (or 0.02 percent) to the United States Gross Domestic Product.”
The pipeline was killed off by a first-day executive order by the president, titled Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science To Tackle the Climate Crisis.
In the order, Biden said that the Keystone XL project, which aimed to carry crude oil from the Alberta oil sands in Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, “disserves the U.S. national interest.”
In the report, the DOE said the Biden administration reached the decision to eliminate the pipeline’s permits because “its construction and operation would not be consistent with U.S. climate goals and it would undermine the global energy and climate leadership role of the United States.”
The estimates were taken from a 2014 Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, which stated that 50 permanent jobs would be created by the project.
“Construction jobs would be more significant but temporary; if construction were to take two years, about 3,900 direct jobs would be created annually during construction, and 21,050 U.S. total jobs would be created, counting indirect and induced jobs,” the report stated.
“Other estimates for temporary jobs during the construction phase ranged from 16,149 to 59,468 annually for a two-year period. However, the study includes segments of the Keystone pipeline that were not related to the XL portion and jobs corresponding to those sections that were built were realized.
“Additionally, the high-end figure comes from this study which faced significant criticism for including in its analysis project inputs from India, Russia, and Russian companies in Canada, thus including jobs outside the United States.”
But it was never only about jobs. Remember when gas prices began skyrocketing in 2022? This was Biden’s response:
REPORTER: What can you do about skyrocketing gas prices?
BIDEN: “Can’t do much right now. Russia’s responsible.” pic.twitter.com/UZrBUEsliQ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 8, 2022
And while one could make the argument the pipeline wouldn’t have been operational by last spring, it sent a message to oil and gas companies: Slow your pumping and refining, and invest in new fossil-fuel infrastructure at your own risk.
Then, the administration blamed those companies for the gas-price debacle and told them to raise production totals or else — something even CNN’s John Berman had to call out when Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said energy producers “need to increase supply,” in part “by drilling more.”
“Five years from now, ten years from now, are you telling me you want them drilling for more oil, you want the refineries putting out more gasoline in five or ten years?” Berman asked.
“What we’re saying is today we need that supply increased,” Granholm said. “Of course, in five or ten years — actually, in the immediate, we are also pressing on the accelerator, if you will, to move toward clean energy so that we don’t have to be under the thumb of petro-dictators like Putin or at the whim of the volatility of fossil fuels.”
In other words, oil and gas companies are supposed to subsidize the government by paying for drilling and fossil-fuel infrastructure as the Biden administration tries to end drilling and fossil-fuel infrastructure.
This clip is ASTONISHING.
Energy Sec. @JenGranholm demands energy companies to make massive investments to increase oil supply while simultaneously saying they want to shut them down over the next 5-10 years.
WHAT IS THIS WHITE HOUSE?! pic.twitter.com/CTgC4dk92x
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) June 15, 2022
As for all the jobs lost — well, there’s always wind and solar.
John Kerry is asked what his message would be to oil and gas workers who “see an end to their livelihoods”:
“What President Biden wants to do is make sure that those folks have better choices… That they can be the people to go to work to make the solar panels.” pic.twitter.com/i9TYXlD9Jg
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 27, 2021
Or maybe they can learn to code.
Needless to say, Republicans weren’t happy about the Biden administration in the last days of 2022 at last admitting to what we had all been saying — and doing it quietly.
“The Biden administration finally owned up to what we have known all along — killing the Keystone XL pipeline cost good-paying jobs, hurt Montana’s economy and was the first step in the Biden administration’s war on oil and gas production in the United States,” Montana Sen. Steve Daines said in a Thursday statement. “Unfortunately, the administration continues to pursue energy production anywhere but the United States. These policies may appeal to the woke Left, but hurt Montana’s working families. I’ll keep fighting back against Biden’s anti-energy agenda and supporting Montana energy projects and jobs.”
“The Department of Energy finally admitted to the worst kept secret about the Keystone Pipeline: President Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline sacrificed thousands of American jobs,” Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho added. “To make matters worse, his decision moved the U.S. further away from energy independence and lower gas prices at a time when inflation and gas prices are drastically impacting Americans’ pocketbooks. The President must turn to American made energy and jobs rather than dictators and despots to fix the energy crisis he created on his first day in office.”
But what are we to expect? This is hardly a president who is going to own his failures — particularly when the blame is so easily shifted to energy companies.
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