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‘Now we learn the truth’: Biden admin admits cancelling Keystone XL pipeline cost Americans thousands of jobs, billions of dollars

January 6, 2023 | | Print Article

During the final days of 2022 — and without the pesky glare of a concerned media or any public announcement — the Department of Energy (DOE) released a congressionally mandated impact report on the positive economic effect the Keystone XL Pipeline would have had on America, were it not for the fact that, in deference to what one Senator called the “fanatical climate religion of the left,” President Joe Biden revoked its federal permits.

At a time when Americans are battling inflation and soaring energy costs, the report is particularly damning for the Biden administration.

According to the DOE, between 16,149 and 59,468 jobs would have been created, though a 2014 report from the federal government estimated the total number of U.S. jobs created during the 2-year construction to be 21,050.

What’s more, the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (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 report states.

It’s an infuriating glimpse at what might have been, had Biden not canceled the pipeline’s permits as one of his first presidential acts in January 2021.

“Now we learn the truth,” fumed Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) on Twitter. “Canceling Keystone cost almost 60,000 working class jobs in this country. Not to mention our energy independence. All for the fanatical climate religion of the left.”

Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.) echoed Hawley’s sentiments.

“The Biden administration finally owned up to what [Montanans] have known all along — killing the Keystone XL pipeline cost good-paying jobs, hurt MT’s economy and was the first step in the Biden admin’s war on oil and gas production in the United States,” he tweeted.

“Unfortunately, the administration continues to pursue energy production anywhere but the United States,” he said in a statement, according to Fox News. “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 senator vowed.

It was Daines, along with Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), who managed to insert into Biden’s November 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act a bill requiring the report, which should have been published just 90 days after the president signed it into law. Instead, the DOE took more than a year and a half to release it.

In a statement from the agency released on Thursday, the DOE claimed the impact on jobs were “limited,” but it failed to mention the thousands of temporary jobs that would have been created during the project’s construction phase.

“The U.S. Department of Energy released a report evaluating existing analysis on economic and job effects of the XL portion of Keystone pipeline,” the DOE told Fox News Digital. “It concluded there were limited job impacts, with approximately 50 permanent jobs estimated to have been created were the pipeline operational.”

“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. Risch said on Thursday.

“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,” he continued. “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.”

Melissa Fine
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