Demand permanent end to Keystone Pipeline

    https://www.dothanfirst.com/news/local-news/barry-moore-other-house-republicans-push-to-keep-keystone-xl-pipeline/

    DOTHAN, Ala. (WDHN) — Rep. Barry Moore, AL-02, announced Thursday that he and 85 other Republicans are co-sponsoring a bill to keep the Keystone XL Pipeline Project going.

    On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that revoke the permit for the controversial $8 billion project.

    “On day one, President Biden made the deeply misguided decision to revoke the Keystone XL Pipeline permit, effectively signing pink slips for thousands of American workers during a global pandemic and undermining the United States’ energy independence,” Moore said in a statement. “Now more than ever, job creation and promoting American energy is paramount.”

    According to the Global Energy Insitute, the pipeline would have supported thousands of Canadian and American builders in its construction, although many of the approximately 11,000 jobs were temporary jobs for seasonal employment.

    The pipeline also would have transported more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil per day between Alberta, Canada, and the state of Nebraska, where it would connect to another section connecting to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The institute said the pipeline would have generated $3.4 billion in growing America’s gross domestic product (GDP).

    In 2017, the U.S. Department of State granted a presidential permit for TransCanada to construct and operate the pipeline.

    However, the pipeline faced opposition from environmentalists, ranchers, and indigenous communities for the potentially negative impact the pipeline would have on the land, especially in the case of a leak.

    “Our land, water, and people are under direct threat from the KXL pipeline,” said Andrew Werk Jr., president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in a statement to the Native American Rights Fund following Biden’s order. “It is a project that has moved forward without regard to legality or safety. Our water sources are threatened by the dirty tar sand crude, our ancestral homelands are in the direct path of the pipeline, and our people already are suffering the effects of nearby construction worker man camps.”

    In his order revoking the permit for the Keystone Pipeline, Biden cited environmental concerns as his reason for doing so.

    “The Keystone XL pipeline disserves the U.S. national interest,” Biden wrote. “The United States and the world face a climate crisis. That crisis must be met with action on a scale and at a speed commensurate with the need to avoid setting the world on a dangerous, potentially catastrophic, climate trajectory. At home, we will combat the crisis with an ambitious plan to build back better, designed to both reduce harmful emissions and create good clean-energy jobs.”

    Moore challenged this position Thursday, saying addressing climate change issues should not come at the cost of American jobs and energy independence.

    “If their goal is to address climate change, they should promote affordable, cleaner energy solutions, not job-killing policies that raise energy costs for Americans and create energy dependence on Russia and the Middle East,” he said.

    As such, Republicans are proposing the Keystone XL Pipeline Construction and Jobs Preservation Act, which would override the president’s executive order by granting legislative permission for the pipeline’s construction and render the presidential permit irrelevant.

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