Earth to Joe Biden: Canceling Keystone XL Pipeline Is a Gift to China and Russia – By Daniel Turner (Real Clear Politics) / January 19 2021
Joe Biden’s plans to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline is a gift to someone. The radical green groups for sure: they have opposed the oil link since its inception. The trucking and railroad industry will benefit, too, because once the pipeline is stopped, then the oil will be transported in and around America by something with wheels. It’s also a gift to our adversaries: for who will benefit when America and Canada can’t bring their fossil fuels to market? The competition. Russia and Venezuela will be thrilled to know their market share will increase thanks to the Biden Administration’s fumble.
What’s fascinating about Keystone is how un-fascinating the project actually really is. Sure, it’s a marvel of engineering and an extraordinary accomplishment of human and mechanical skills. The 1,200 mile pipeline from Alberta, Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast carrying crude oil to be refined is a great infrastructure project. A State Department study commissioned during the Obama Administration (when Joe Biden was Veep, a point which requires emphasis) determined the pipeline would create 3,200 temporary construction jobs directly, 42,000 additional jobs indirectly, and generate over $2 billion in wages. For the people in Montana, South Dakota, and Nebraska, the states through which the proposed pipeline will transverse, that’s an enormous opportunity.
Joe Biden claims to love infrastructure. His “Build Back Better” program commits to infrastructure programs which create “good paying” jobs and achieve “net-zero” emissions. (Know what has emissions? Trucks and trains. Know what doesn’t? Pipelines. But alas, there’s no place for facts in a party which simplistically “believes in science.”). Eliminating Keystone for purely political reasons eliminates these jobs and all the opportunities for these communities. Rural America will not fare well under the Biden energy agenda. After all, this is just the beginning.
