Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, sent a letter to President Biden on Tuesday asking him to “reconsider” his “decision to revoke the cross-border permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and take into account the potential impacts of any further action to safety, jobs, and energy security.”
Manchin mentioned the fact that many of the workers set to lose their jobs as a result of Biden’s order are union members, whom Biden claims to support and care about.
He also mentioned the safety record of oil and gas pipelines:
Pipelines continue to be the safest mode to transport our oil and natural gas resources, and they support thousands of high-paying, American union jobs.
He stated that accidents involving soiling the environment are some 14 times more likely with truck and rail transportation, adding, “Pipelines have a 99.999% safety record.”
Manchin brought up the impact Biden’s order would have on the country’s energy security:
It is of the utmost importance that the United States maintain that energy security … rather than increasing [its] reliance on OPEC nations and Russia.
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With Biden’s executive order, 11,000 workers, union or not, are expected to lose their jobs directly and immediately. The cost of moving the 35 million gallons of crude oil each day from Alberta, Canada to Steele City, Nebraska, by rail or tanker will increase the cost of gasoline at the pump. Other efforts to build out similar infrastructure will be stymied in light of Biden’s determination to pander to special interests opposed to the pipeline.
Since assuming office, Biden has seemed to care little about the people he said the would help, namely average, working-class Americans. His policy encouraging illegal immigration will have a tremendous effect of the country, both politically and economically. His immediate reentry into the Paris Accord will hurt economic growth as well.
His Keystone XL pipeline move angered AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who called out Biden’s hypocrisy in promising new jobs and then canceling 11,000 of them on his first day in the Oval Office.
Unfortunately, Biden will likely ignore Manchin’s letter, as he is he likely to ignore the letter crafted and signed by 14 Republican attorneys general informing him that his decision to cancel the permit for the pipeline “will result in devastating damage to many of our states and local communities. Even those states outside the path of the Keystone XL pipeline — indeed, all Americans — will suffer serious, detrimental consequences.”
Biden isn’t troubled by such things. He has no political future. He isn’t looking to run for reelection in 2024. Many feel that with his deteriorating mental acuity, he might not even finish his first term. In that case, Kamala Harris would be running the show, and she most certainly doesn’t have the best interests of the United States at heart.
