Trump approves Keystone XL pipeline, hails ‘great day’

Upon learning that TransCanada is awaiting approval from permits for construction in Nebraska, Trump chimed in that Republican governor Pete Ricketts is “a fantastic governor, I’ll call him today”.

Throughout the first couple of months of his presidency, Donald Trump has been motivated to keep jobs on USA soil, but when it comes to the steel being used to create the Keystone XL pipeline, The Independent claimed the materials would be sourced from Canada and Mexico in part.

Trump announced the presidential permit for Keystone XL at the White House with Girling and Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, standing nearby.

When Donald Trump on Friday gave the green light for the construction of the contentious Keystone XL pipeline, it did not come unexpectedly.

Rejecting the pipeline in 2015, Obama smugly pontificated, “Ultimately, if we’re going to prevent large parts of this Earth from becoming not only inhospitable but uninhabitable in our lifetimes, we’re going to have to keep some fossil fuels in the ground rather than burn them and release more risky pollution into the sky”. “This is one more step in a joint effort between Congress and the administration to pursue policies that encourage job creation and economic growth”. The new pipeline would allow for more crude oil from Canada to be transported south. TransCanada has said Keystone won’t be built with US steel.

The $8 billion project will move around 800,000 barrels of oil each day from Canada through the United States.

Environmentalists, Native American groups and landowners who’ve opposed Keystone expressed outrage, and Greenpeace said the US was “moving backwards” on climate and energy policy.

TransCanada tried for more than five years to build the 1,897-km pipeline, until Obama rejected it in 2015. Environmentalist groups object to the pipeline because of fears it encourages the use of dirty energy sources. Since then we’ve had the three hottest years ever measured on our planet. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may have supported the project in the past, but he also must be mindful of his country’s overall greenhouse gas emissions and meeting nationwide limits Canada promised in the Paris climate agreement. “This critical infrastructure project has been studied longer than any pipeline project in USA history with exhaustive reviews by the State Department concluding that the project is safe for the environment and the best option for transporting domestic crude and Canadian oil to US refineries”.

But the level of those benefits has been the subject of exhaustive debate in recent years.

Part of the original Keystone pipeline runs through eastern Nebraska. Many energy experts insisted the truth was somewhere in between. While the impact on gasoline prices may not be immediately known or felt, the pipeline will allow more US refiners to process Canadian crude oil and reduce reliance on foreign supply, while helping Canadians secure their energy future. But Keystone’s backers said that wouldn’t happen even if the pipeline wasn’t built.

The pipeline will carry crude oil from both Canada and North Dakota.

But the jobs promise is subject to dispute. After that work dries up, 35 jobs would remain. In his February 28 speech to a Joint Session on Congress, the president stated that his memo had “cleared the way for the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Access Pipelines – thereby creating tens of thousands of jobs”. And after that, only a few dozen workers would be needed to maintain the pipeline.

Politico reported in early March that Keystone XL would be exempted from the made-in-USA steel requirement but President Trump also reportedly told U.S. Steel Corp.

Farmers, landowners and Native American tribes are battling the pipeline, as are national environmental groups and climate activists.

The commission had received less than 50 applications just before the 5 p.m. deadline, including some from pipeline supporters, said agency spokeswoman Deb Collins.