14 State Attorney Generals condemn Biden for cancelling Keystone XL oil pipeline

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Fourteen Republican state attorney generals have signed a letter to President Biden, telling him that his cancellation of permits needed to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline will cause dramatic economic suffering to local communities. The attorneys have asked the President to reconsider his decision.

Keystone XL is a planned 1,179-mile pipeline running from Alberta, Canada, to Steele City, Nebraska that could carry 830,000 barrels of oil a day. The project has been fought against by environmentalists and Indigenous American groups for over 10 years. The Obama administration blocked construction of the pipeline in 2015, but President Trump reversed that order and permitted the work to proceed. When President Biden was inaugurated last month, he canceled the building permits on his first day in office.

In their letter to Biden, the 14 attorneys general warned of an impending financial crisis for many American workers: “Nationally, your decision will eliminate thousands of well-paying jobs, many of them union jobs,” they said in the letter. “And it’s cold comfort to suggest to now-jobless Americans that by turning the page on projects like Keystone XL, workers can look forward to high-paying green energy jobs that don’t yet exist.”

Moreover, the letter says, pipeline states will lose tax revenue needed for public services among things. “In Montana for instance, killing Keystone XL will likely cost the state approximately $58 million in annual tax revenue,” the letter explains. “Montana will lose the benefits of future easements and leases, and several local counties will lose their single-biggest property taxpayer. The loss of Keystone XL’s economic activity and tax revenues are especially devastating as five of the six impacted counties are designated high-poverty areas.”

The project has raised opposition because of environmental concerns, including that oil spillage could damage fragile ecosystems around the pipeline. In addition, First Nations groups in Northern Alberta have claimed damages from the provincial and federal government for 15 years of oil sands development they were not consulted on, including treaty-guaranteed rights to hunt, trap and fish on traditional lands.

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