From Watts Up With That?
Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t rhs; A congressionally mandated report has revealed the hit on Montana’s economy and the lost jobs and income caused by President Biden canceling the Keystone Pipeline.
Biden admin quietly admits canceling Keystone XL Pipeline cost thousands of jobs, billions of dollars
President Biden’s decision to revoke pipeline’s permits hurt ‘working families,’ Montana senator says
By Thomas Catenacci | Fox News
January 5, 2023 2:39pm ESTThe Biden administration published a congressionally mandated report highlighting the positive economic benefits the Keystone XL Pipeline would have had if President Biden didn’t revoke its federal permits.
The report, which the Department of Energy (DOE) completed in late December without any public announcement, says the Keystone XL project would have created between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs and would have had a positive economic impact of between $3.4-9.6 billion, citing various studies. A previous report from the federal government published in 2014 determined 3,900 direct jobs and 21,050 total jobs would be created during construction which was expected to take two years.
But immediately after taking office in January 2021, Biden canceled the pipeline’s permits, effectively shutting the project down.
“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,” Sen. Steve Daines. R-Mont., said Thursday in a statement. “Unfortunately, the administration continues to pursue energy production anywhere but the United States.”
The report is available here.
From the report;
… 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.
At the time the KXL was cancelled, TC Energy announced that approximately 1,000 workers “on both sides of the border” were impacted. To the extent that some U.S. employment had already occurred, the numbers of jobs lost as a consequence of KXL’s cancellation would likely be less than these job estimates as they cover the total projected employment from the construction and operation of KXL. …Read more: https://www.daines.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/12.23.22-KXL-Pipeline-Job-Loss-and-Impacts-on-Consumer-Energy-Costs-001245.pdf
The consequences go far beyond financial losses and lost jobs. The cancellation sent a message to the industry, that petroleum investment is not welcome in Biden’s America.
Every day Americans pay for that lack of petroleum investment, through inflated gasoline pump prices.
