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.
It’s your problem, to do something about it the only way to do it is to stop the democrats Marxists from destroying the country.
Your all in for all the chaos the cause you like the feral to keep looting massive inflation?.
You have utopia views or your on powerful meds or both.
Your in need of a real 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
The switch to all electric vehicles will be shown to be, not only none feasible, but just plain stupid. It will be shown the ash heap of history. And all these idiots who think this is a good idea? Well it’ll just be forgotten about with no consequences whatsoever.
Anyone who drives electric should be ashamed of driving on our roads considering they pay no road taxes. But they’re not. Nope. Smug, Arrogant, know-it-alls.
“It’s your problem, to do something about it the only way to do it is to stop the democrats Marxists from destroying the country.
Your all in for all the chaos the cause you like the feral to keep looting massive inflation?.
You have utopia views or your on powerful meds or both.
Your in need of a real life”
I’m fine and will be fine as I can take care of myself. This country was built by self reliant folks who could take on any problem that came their way. Something most people today cannot do. You can be that way too if you want but it takes work and dedication.
This country was built by self reliant folks
They didn’t have a rigged system or swamp crew to deal with it’s a matter of who do you trust.
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