Posted on 01/06/2023 10:56:06 AM PST by Red Badger
Just how bad was Joe Biden’s decision upon taking office to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline? We now have an admission directly from Biden’s own administration.
According to a newly-released report from the Department of Energy, which cited a variety of studies on the economic impact of the pipeline’s construction, the cancellation of Keystone XL cost somewhere between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs. Lost GDP from the project is also estimated to be between $3.4 billion and $9.6 billion.
Even when you only consider the SEIS, which is the government’s environmental impact study, the numbers of jobs and money involved aren’t small potatoes.
The 2014 Final SEIS estimated that about 42,100 total jobs, or 21,050 jobs annually, would be created if construction were to take two years (direct, indirect, and induced), as well as $2.05 billion in earnings in the United States. About 3,900 of these jobs would be direct construction jobs in Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. The project was expected to support 50 jobs during the operation. The SEIS 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 cop-out here still being pushed by the DOE is the idea that the pipeline would only have created 50 permanent jobs. That’s a farce for several reasons. For starters, I’ve never heard of a pipeline that’s 1200 miles long and only requires 50 people to maintain it, from those on the ground to those flying pipeline patrol from the air.
Regardless, that’s not really relevant because the “temporary” jobs still mattered. There are entire industries full of contract workers that make a living moving between “temporary” jobs. Any individual construction project, for example, might only last a few years, but a few years of employment remains employment. How many people suffered because Biden needed to make a meaningless sacrifice to the “climate crisis.”
Besides, there wasn’t even anything good for the climate in canceling Keystone XL. America is now more dependent on foreign oil and the longer supply lines that come with that, producing more carbon emissions in the process. In the end, pipelines offer a lower impact than ships, trains, and semi-trucks. Never mind the more important aspect of all this, which was the foreign policy disaster that resulted in giving away all our leverage, causing a mad scramble to try to get more oil from places like Venezuela.
Sen. Steve Daines of Montana, whose state was heavily impacted by Biden’s decision to scrap Keystone XL, put out this statement.
The Biden administration finally owned up to what Montanans 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 admin’s war on oil and gas production in the United States.
And as if to put a fine point on how out of control and corrupt the US government is, this report came out a year after it was mandated to be released within 90 days. Daines and others had successfully inserted the 90-day provision into Biden’s infrastructure bill, which passed in November of 2021. The DOE completely ignored it, no doubt wanting to wait until after the 2022 election to release the report, technically breaking the law in the process.
Will any price be paid for any of this? Of course, not. Biden can make terrible decisions, flaunting the law in order to cover them up, and all he’ll receive are shrugs. There’s no accountability because those charged with holding him accountable are on his side politically.
President Retard is a disaster.
All to be a hero to a bunch of woke commie environazis. God, I effing HATE this guy.
As if us peons can have such good-paying, lifetime jobs and careers like government bureaucrats and politicians.
This is a key phrase, and it's also highly illustrative of the so-called environment movement: it's not about results related to the environment in any way, shape, or form: it's entirely about disruption to an entire capitalist way of life.
The exact same principle holds for this ridiculous push for electric vehicles... production of which is well-established as being (a) worse for the environment overall, and (b) an impossible objective in general. End rant.
Puppet Joe gave the deep state cabal what they wanted…..
greenie weenies are happy.
The Greenies are actually Red-CCP Red!
What was his reasoning for shutting down the pipeline? They told him to shut it down?
Climate change.....................
Warren Buffett the big winner in all of this....of course.
It is not just Warren Buffet.
It is every producer of Heavy Crude type oil. Countries like Venezuela and Iran. Keystone II would have greatly reduced the cost of bringing Alberta crude to OK, LA, TX.
That oil is currently being brought to the Gulf Coast refineries by Super Tanker from foreign countries.
>>the numbers of jobs and money involved aren’t small potatoes.<<
Wait till China invades and we need jet fuel and other fossil fuels for our rolling stock.
This administration’s way of running the US smacks of high treason.
Yes, you are certainly correct, and we keep funding our mortal enemies. Despicable.
China owns Biden because of Hunter...............
What happens to the Canadian oil in the meantime? I assume it’s going to get sold via some other method. But I don’t know anything about oil markets.
It goes to CHINA from ports on the West coast of Canada..............
So basically it gets used and if anything the carbon footprint increases without Keystone.
I would love to get a primary source link for that if you have it, no biggie if not. But that’s important info that I never see reported in conservative media.
Just part of the continuing Watermelon New Deal.
It’s a war on Americans who want to use petroleum on an ongoing basis.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.