Here is the truth about this pipeline.
In recent days, we’ve seen the Republicans in Texas go on social media and on TV talking about how Biden has destroyed thousands of jobs by halting the Keystone Pipeline. Ted Cruz, specifically has been repeating this. Republicans have been saying that anywhere from 11,000 to 75,000 jobs have been lost because Biden revoked the Keystone Pipeline permit.
[mepr-hide] https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); [/mepr-hide]However, that’s not true.
TC Energy, the company that was building the pipeline put out a statement that they laid off about 1,000 construction workers, half of which were in Canada. There were all temporary workers who would have lost their jobs when construction was completed, anyway. This lie that Republicans have been spreading stems from multiple Facebook posts, which completely fabricated the job numbers and failed to mention they were temporary jobs.
It has been a well-known fact for years, now, that the Keystone pipeline would only have created 50 permanent jobs.
Why they Keystone Pipeline should have been halted.
The Keystone Pipeline was supposed to be a 1,179-mile long pipeline, constructed in multiple phases, and would stretch from Alberta, Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. Going all the way back to 2008, the Keystone Pipeline has always been a controversial subject. The chatter around the pipeline started soon after the Deepwater Horizon Spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
[mepr-hide] https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); [/mepr-hide]The initial pipeline permit was granted by the Bush administration in 2008.
The pipeline cut right through Indigenous lands, which is just one more way America violated Indigenous Americans, as the pipeline has been destroying their lands. In 2011, hundreds were arrested protesting the Keystone Pipeline.
In 2014, the State Department determined that the Keystone Pipeline would have a devastating impact on the environment. Part of the pipeline goes right through the Yellowstone Rivers, putting several animal species in danger.
Between 2010 – 2011, the pipeline leaked 11 times. For years, the Keystone Pipeline leaks have killed thousands of plants and animals. In 2014, the pipeline leaked 9,100 barrels of oil into the North Dakota wetlands.
The spills and leaks kept coming.
Another spill happened in North Dakota in 2015, when 3 million gallons of brine water was leaked into the ground and the Missouri River.
Then, in 2016, the pipeline spilled 17,000 gallons of oil in South Dakota. In 2017, the Keystone Pipeline burst in Montana, sending 50,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone Rivers (for a second time). That wasn’t the only spill in 2017. There was also another spill in South Dakota, this time it was over 407,000 gallons.
[mepr-hide] https://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); [/mepr-hide]2019 brought another spill in North Dakota, 380,000 gallons affected over 22,000 square miles of wetlands. TC Energy ultimately paid $52,000 to the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality for that spill. Yes, you read that right. $52,000.
Since 2010, the Keystone Pipeline has leaked or spilled in America at least 21 times.
Why are we still talking about the Keystone Pipeline?
In 2015, Obama killed the Keystone Pipeline. There was no benefit to America then, and there isn’t a benefit now. However, in 2020, Trump approved further Keystone Pipeline construction on America’s lands. After Biden took office, he killed the pipeline again.
Now, Republicans are lying about jobs and the economy. But for them, it isn’t about either, nor do the long devastating impacts on the environment matter. It’s all about contributing money from oil companies.
Still Blue in Texas 