One of the first things the Biden administration did when it came into office was to nix the Keystone XL pipeline approval that former President Donald Trump put in place.
Biden, who was being guided by his own hatred of Trump as well as the influence of the far-left environmentalists, did it without a second thought to the jobs and energy independence Americans desperately needed. The results of such a move, as we’ve seen over the course of the last year, have been catastrophic. And we now know that Biden is aware of it. They just don’t want to say it out loud.
Via Fox News:
The Biden administration published a congressionally mandated report highlighting the positive economic benefits the Keystone XL Pipeline would have had if President Biden didn’t revoke its federal permits.
The report, which the Department of Energy (DOE) completed in late December without any public announcement, says the Keystone XL project would have created between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs and would have had a positive economic impact of between $3.4-9.6 billion, citing various studies. A previous report from the federal government published in 2014 determined 3,900 direct jobs and 21,050 total jobs would be created during construction which was expected to take two years.
But, it’s not just the jobs. This would have had a major impact on the amount of crude oil that could have been brought into the United States, which could have helped offset the energy crisis we saw in 2022 – and appears to be spiking again.
Keystone XL had been slated to be completed early this year and transport an additional 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Canada to the U.S. through an existing pipeline network, according to its operator, TC Energy.
[…]
“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,” [Sen. Jim] Risch said Thursday.
“To make matters worse, his decision moved the U.S. further away from energy independence and lower gas prices at a time when inflation and gas prices are drastically impacting Americans’ pocketbooks,” he added.
“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.”
The American energy crisis has had a major impact on the financial security of American citizens who were already dealing with higher prices across the board. And while the most recent Consumer Price Index report shows inflation cooling, the bulk of that came from energy prices dropping. While that might seem like a good thing, prices are still far higher than they were when Biden took office, and, what’s worse, they seem to be on the rise again.
The national average for a gallon of gas is now a little over 30 cents higher than it was a month ago, according to AAA.
RealClearEnergy points out that it isn’t just the Keystone XL pipeline decision that is making things worse – the left has chosen a series of policy moves that have hurt Americans.
Two years into sowing its Green New Deal policies, the administration is reaping a bitter harvest. Due to Biden’s folly, oil, natural gas and electricity prices have more than doubled in just a single year. Meanwhile, more than 28 percent of Americans abstained from purchasing food or medicine to pay an energy bill in 2021. And now, the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act includes wind and solar spending that will cost Americans $369 billion.
If the president and his Democratic allies in Congress refuse to heed lessons from the past, they have a rare opportunity to view an even more desperate future of what will certainly come to pass by staying on the same irresponsible course.
We can see the results of such policies in Europe, where several countries are not only struggling to make their commitment to cutting fossil fuels work, they are outright reversing them (and without increasing their emissions).
The Democrats have hurt Americans with these policies, and the Department of Energy report admitting it was a mistake (even if they don’t outright say it) is a sign that they know it. But, just because they know it doesn’t mean they’ll change their minds.