No, Joe Biden did not eliminate 10,000 jobs
Even with Donald Trump out of office — fake news, misinformation, and distorted facts will continue to plague the Biden Administration.
Keystone gets stonewalled
During his first few days as President of the United States, Joe Biden came out swinging with executive orders — one of which was made to kill American jobs; or so the story goes.
Biden did indeed invoke his presidential power to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL project.
The idea was originally brought to life back in July 2008 by TC Energy Corp. (then known as TransCanada Corp.), a pipeline company based in Calgary, Alberta, and ConocoPhillips (which was a joint owner until 2009).
But throughout the pipeline’s lifespan — the 12-year project became stuck in development hell as it was wrapped up in legal issues across several states; and it also faced disputes from Native Americans, environmental groups, and even Hollywood celebrities such as Daryl Hannah.
The project was essentially on life support and Biden pulled the plug.
10,000 jobs was a pipe dream
There has been an arbitrary number of jobs floating around that the project would supposedly create: 10,000.
But the truth is: there are simply not that many number of jobs to be created from what was going to be an expansion of an existing pipeline.
People most likely got their number from the Association of Oil Pipe Lines (AOPL) website.
“Killing 10,000 jobs and taking $2.2 billion in payroll out of workers pockets is not what Americans need or want right now,”
Building the Keystone XL pipeline would create 10,000 good-paying American union jobs during construction.
And there arises an obvious choice for this number.
When you’re lobbying with investors and politicians looking to line their pockets — anything looks disastrous for Americans as soon as things don’t go their way.
In reality, there was no guarantee TC Energy would’ve created 10,000 jobs as most positions would’ve been contractual or temporary, at best. CNN reported this back in 2017.
“Once Keystone is completed, only 35 permanent employees would be needed to operate the pipeline along with 15 temporary contractors.”
On top of that, TC Energy wouldn’t even be directly employing workers for the Keystone XL pipeline; they merely issued grants back in October 2020 to construction companies to hire workers.
About 1,000 people were laid off, but the pipeline was stuck in limbo through two presidencies and was finally relinquished since the US isn’t desperate for excessive crude oil. We’re also building/looking into alternatives such as electric cars, hybrids, and other technologies that won’t rely so much on oil.
Canada might be disappointed but should we even care?
Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, expressed “disappointment” in a read out of the president’s first official call.
He mentioned the importance of economic and energy security benefits of our bilateral energy relationship as well as his support for energy workers.
But the deal is anything but mutually exclusive.
The vice president of the American Petroleum Institute, an oil and gas industry trade group, Robin Rorick said Keystone XL had been through a decade of extensive environmental reviews and scrutiny.
But the pipeline runs from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, through Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma Kansas, and South Dakota. So this clearly puts more liabilities on the U.S. And if things go south, say for instance, an oil spill which Taylor Energy is still trying to contain and fix in the Gulf of Mexico — Canada won’t have an environmental crisis on their hands.
Drinking water could be contaminated, animals could be displaced or be completely wiped out, and there could be the loss of human lives as well as other damages in the event of a spill.
Potential racial discrimination in pipeline construction
What’s notable about the outcry from Conservatives about these temporary jobs in a market that ranks as the 161st largest in the U.S. is the fact they’re mainly White and Conservative.
Currently, BLS puts White men at 87 percent in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction category. Of the oil and gas extraction, White men makeup 80 percent.
So there’s questions about who exactly does this directly benefit when we’re talking about 10,000 temporary jobs.
Who are these jobs going to?
Which politicians are being paid?
The bottom line is: there is no 10,000 jobs and there never were.
Keystone XL may have championed unions but there’s no reason to believe they could’ve delivered even a fraction of that 10,000 jobs or even keep a fraction of that fraction of those jobs permanently.
Temporary work can be helpful, especially during COVID-19, but that’s not what conservative are pushing when they push hollow remarks, Tweets, and think pieces based on misinformation for the desperate unionized [temp] workers who are mainly able-bodied White men who are expendable.
It’s all done in an effort to make themselves look like the good guys who want to bring jobs back. But the truth is they are giving in to lobbying or are looking for some sort of kickback.
