In a report mandated by the US Congress that was released without any public notification, the Biden administration quietly confessed the president's decision to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline (KXL), his first action after he took office, cost billions of dollars and hurt families on both sides of the border..KXL, a 1,947-kilometre pipeline, was designed to carry 830,000 barrels a day of crude oil from Hardisty, AB, to Steele City, Neb. From there, it would connect with the company’s existing facilities to reach the US Gulf Coast, one of the world’s biggest oil refining hubs. The pipeline would have been finished this year..The report from the US Department of Energy (DOE) confirmed the project would have created between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs and would have benefited America's economy to the tune of up to US$9.6 billion..At the time of the cancellation, then Alberta premier, Jason Kenney said the province expected to be out CAD$1.3 billion..Lori Williams, a political science professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said at the time the number could go higher, costing Albertans more in taxes..“(The government) has given us an estimate of what the cost will be. My guess is that it’s a low estimate,” she said..The new assessment from DOE was dated December 2022 but was announced by the offices of Republican Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and James Risch (R-Idaho) Thursday. .“The Department of Energy finally admitted to the worst kept secret about the Keystone Pipeline: President Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline sacrificed thousands of American jobs,” Risch said in a written statement. .“The president must turn to American made energy and jobs rather than dictators and despots to fix the energy crisis he created on his first day in office.”.Last year, Biden approached the governments of Venezuela and Saudi Arabia in an effort to secure oil to replace the supply that would have come from KXL, to no avail. He has since dipped into and depleted US oil reserves on several occasions to boost supply and temper rising gasoline prices..Daines cited the damage Biden caused to the nation.."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,” said Daines..“Unfortunately, the administration continues to pursue energy production anywhere but the United States.".Biden's war on energy is due to his agenda to turn the US "green," demanding all energy must come from renewable energy sources, even though it has been documented such sources do not have the capability of providing America with all its energy needs..The Justin Trudeau/Jagmeet Singh team has the same intention for Canada, primarily shutting down the Alberta energy industry..In a weak defense of the cancellation, the DOE in a statement to Fox News Digital, claimed Keystone would have provided "limited job impacts, with approximately 50 permanent jobs…".A commentary in Redstate addressed the DOE's claim of 50 jobs.."The cop-out here still being pushed by the DOE is the idea that the pipeline would only have created 50 permanent jobs. That’s a farce for several reasons,” writes Redstate's Bonchie. “For starters, I’ve never heard of a pipeline that’s 1,200 miles long and only requires 50 people to maintain it, from those on the ground to those flying pipeline patrol from the air.”.“Regardless, that’s not really relevant because the 'temporary' jobs still mattered. There are entire industries full of contract workers that make a living moving between 'temporary' jobs. Any individual construction project, for example, might only last a few years, but a few years of employment remains employment. How many people suffered because Biden needed to make a meaningless sacrifice to the 'climate crisis.’".Daines pointed out the absurdity of cancelling KXL in the name of the so-called climate crisis.."These policies may appeal to the woke left but, America is now more dependent on foreign oil and the longer supply lines that come with that, producing more carbon emissions in the process,” he said..“In the end, pipelines offer a lower impact than ships, trains, and semi-trucks. Never mind the more important aspect of all this, which was the foreign policy disaster that resulted in giving away all our leverage, causing a mad scramble to try to get more oil from places like Venezuela."
