Larry Behrens, communications director for Power the Future, a 501(c)4 organization, says the Department of Energy was required to publish the report within 90 days of the passage of a bill mandating its inclusion into the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Biden signed into law in November 2021. The report was completed in late December – more than a year later – without any public announcement.
"What the report found was that the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline cost as much as 59,000 American jobs and nearly $10 billion in lost revenue," Behrens relays. "This is absolutely contrary to what the White House had said previously. They have been using excuses like it didn't count that many jobs [and] it was so far from completion it didn't matter; now we know that that just absolutely wasn't the case."
Behrens adds that some or many of these jobs would have fallen under what President Biden would classify as "good paying union jobs."
"This was a key part of American energy infrastructure, which, by the way, would've been completed by now and would be helping with gas prices that are already on the rise again," he continues.
Upon seeing the figures, Senator Steve Daines (R-Montana) said in a statement, "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."
He also pointed out that the administration continues to pursue energy production anywhere but the United States with policies that may "appeal to the woke Left, but hurt Montana's working families."
"I'll keep fighting back against Biden's anti-energy agenda and supporting Montana energy projects and jobs," Daines said.
"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," Jim Risch (R-Idaho) likewise responded. "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."
Fox News reports that Risch also implored the president to "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."
In his January 2021 executive order canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, President Joe Biden said it was part of an effort to protect public health and the environment.
