Attorneys General from 16 states are asking Joe Biden to restart the Keystone XL Pipeline as oil supplies are threatened by Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine.
Before Biden took office, the United States under President Donald Trump was energy independent. One of Biden’s earliest actions as president was to issue an executive order revoking the federal permit that allowed the continued construction of the Keystone.
The 1,700-mile pipeline would have carried about 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Alberta oil fields to Texas refineries.
The AGs signing the letter said that their states benefit economically from the pipeline in the form of jobs and fees from operating in their jurisdictions.
The letter said, in part:
Following your revocation of President Donald Trump’s 2019 permit for the Keystone XL pipeline on the first day of your administration, we have repeatedly asked you to reconsider this misguided (and we continue to believe unlawful) decision. We warned you then if your decision was not reversed, Americans would “suffer serious detrimental consequences,” consumers would pay higher prices, and our allies would become further dependent on Russian and Middle Eastern oil.1
We hate to say we told you so.
Just over a year later, new record high gas prices are seemingly set every day, economy-wide inflation—the highest in 40 years—is straining the budgets of American families, and European countries are unable to impose oil and gas sanctions on Russia without risking an economic recession. Instead European countries are spending $1billion per day on Russian oil and gas and literally funding Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in the process.
The DTN website’s Progressive Farmer reported on the letter:
Attorneys general from Montana, Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming said in a letter to Biden on Monday that their greatest fears about how cutting the project would affect energy prices have come true.
Multiple reviews by the U.S. Department of State spanning two administrations found the pipeline would pose little or no environmental harm, including no negative effects on climate.
The attorneys general said a report by the Wall Street Journal indicated the Biden administration was trying to increase oil imports from Canada to make up for lost production in the U.S.
“The oil you now want to import from Canada is the same oil that would have flowed through the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have transported nearly a million barrels per day — not only from Canada but from the Bakken oilfields in Montana and North Dakota — to American refineries,” the letter said. “The hypocrisy would be stunning if it weren’t so insulting to American energy workers and those in rural communities who benefited from the pipeline’s many economic opportunities.”
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