In December, the Department of Energy quietly published a congressionally mandated report admitting that President Joe Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline cost tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars.
The report, entitled “Keystone XL Extension Permit Revocation: Energy Costs and Job Impacts,” revealed the positive economic benefits that would have resulted from the Keystone XL Pipeline if Biden had not revoked its federal permits hours after taking office.
Biden was widely criticized for his actions at the time.
Joe Biden killed the Keystone XL pipeline.
Biden sent union workers packing and destroyed jobs to appease a tiny fringe of climate extremists. This move gutted American energy security & independence.
Now millions of Americans sit in gas lines & airlines don't have fuel to fly.
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 11, 2021
The Energy Department’s report showed that the Keystone XL Pipeline project would have created between 16,149 and 59,468 jobs annually during the two-year construction period. This number is vastly greater than what the department initially reported in 2014, claiming that the project would have only created 3,900 direct jobs and 21,050 total jobs over the two-year period.
The report also cited multiple studies that indicated the U.S. economy would have benefited from the project, stating that it would have created between $3.4 to $9.6 billion over the project’s lifetime.
The report was mandated by Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in November 2021, which Biden signed in November 2021, due to an amendment added by Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Jim Risch (R-ID). According to Fox News, the report was supposed to be published within 90 days, but the department ended up waiting over a year to release it.
A spokesperson for the Energy Department claimed in a statement to Fox News Digital that the Keystone XL Pipeline project would have only had a minimal impact on permanent jobs — specifically avoiding mentioning the potential creation of tens of thousands of jobs during the project’s construction.
“The U.S. Department of Energy released a report evaluating existing analysis on economic and job effects of the XL portion of Keystone pipeline,” the statement read. “It concluded there were limited job impacts, with approximately 50 permanent jobs estimated to have been created were the pipeline operational.”
When Biden canceled the project, it was already more than halfway done and was on track to be completed in 2022. It reportedly would have been operational in early 2023.
According to Breitbart News, “The Keystone XL would have delivered roughly 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Canada to the U.S. through the pipeline. Additionally, a labor agreement signed by four unions with TC Energy in August 2020 promised the project would have created 42,000 American jobs and 2 billion in total wages.”
