Jobs, the Economy and the Keystone XL Pipeline
Mark Green
Posted April 18, 2013
Terrific video below from the folks at Oil Sands Fact Check, featuring regular Americans with a message for President Obama: Approve the Keystone XL pipeline now.
Listen to the pleas for approval of the full Keystone XL project – from people who’ve been waiting more than four years for the jobs and economic benefits construction of the pipeline would bring:
“We just want jobs. … A key part of the election was the economy. We need the jobs.”
“Delaying it any further is just harming the United States of America, and it’s harming the workers that are skilled and trained and ready to get to work.”
“Mr. President, I hope you stand behind your word and support labor, and you get behind the pipeline and you give American workers a job.”
“I’d have more money to support my family, I’d have a better Christmas, I’d have a better life.”
Jobs and the economy. According to the State Department’s most recent analysis the Keystone XL would bring:
- 42,100 average annual jobs across the U.S. over a one- to two-year construction period.
- $2.05 billion in employment earnings.
- $3.3 billion in direct spending on construction and materials.
- $65 million in short-term revenues for government from sales and use taxes in states that levy them.
Cindy Schild, API’s senior downstream manager for oil sands, underscored reasons for the president to approve the full pipeline during a conference call with reporters:
“No pipeline has been analyzed as long and as thoroughly as the Keystone XL pipeline. It’s been under review for more than twice as long as it will take to build the entire project.”
Indeed, the project has cleared four separate reviews by the State Department – each of which has found that Keystone XL would bring economic benefits while posing “no significant impacts to most resources along the proposed Project route …” Schild:
“The State Department should be commended for the comprehensive nature of its analysis, and it should come as no surprise that they have reached the same conclusion in this review that they did in their previous three reviews: the Keystone XL pipeline is safe and will create tens of thousands of well-paying jobs.”
Now is the Keystone XL pipeline’s time. The workers have waited, the country has waited. The energy – more than 800,000 barrels of oil per day from friend and partner Canada and the U.S. Bakken region – would strengthen our energy security.
Oil from Canada’s oil sands region is safe, secure and plentiful. It’s in our national interest to expand our energy partnership with Canada by bringing more of this resource to U.S. refineries, whose capacity to safely process heavier crudes is second to none in the world.
If we pass on the opportunity, Canada’s oil will find other buyers, and the U.S. will have to get it elsewhere – in some cases from countries that aren’t our friends. Schild:
“We’ve got to look out for our energy future and security. This is the best mechanism to do it for our energy security. … The science supports it. A bipartisan congressional majority supports it. Organized labor is anxiously awaiting its approval. The environmental assessment is complete. Its contribution to our economy, to our long-term energy security and to our national security is clear. There should be no question it is in our national interest, so it is time to approve the project.”
About The Author
Mark Green joined API after a career in newspaper journalism, including 16 years as national editorial writer for The Oklahoman in the paper’s Washington bureau. Previously, Mark was a reporter, copy editor and sports editor at an assortment of newspapers. He earned his journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma and master’s in journalism and public affairs from American University. He and his wife Pamela have two grown children and six grandchildren.