Quietly Released Energy Dept. Report Admits Mistake in Canceling Keystone XL Pipeline, Shows Economic Benefits

A congressionally mandated Keystone XL Pipeline report reveals the energy project would have added significantly more economic benefit than earlier estimated.

“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,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) said in a Thursday statement. “Unfortunately, the administration continues to pursue energy production anywhere but the United States.”

The Department of Energy was required to produce the report after Daines and Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), added an amendment to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Biden signed into law in November 2021. The Daines-Risch amendment required DOE’s publication of the report within 90 days of the bill’s passage, but the agency waited more than a year before releasing it, according to a Fox News report.

The Keystone XL report, completed in late December without public announcement, acknowledges the pipeline project would have created between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs. Keystone would have also added an economic impact of between $3.4-9.6 billion, the report revealed, citing various studies.

A 2014 government report about the pipeline’s economic benefits expected 3,900 direct jobs and 21,050 total jobs would be created during the expected two-year construction period, the report added.

President Joe Biden announced a slew of executive orders January 20, 2021, which included one “revoking the Presidential permit granted to the Keystone XL pipeline.”

The August 2020 project labor agreement TC Energy signed with four labor unions promised 42,000 American jobs would be created by the pipeline that would generate $2 billion in worker wages.

TC Energy ultimately gave up on the project in June 2021 as a result of Biden’s decision. Last year, a federal judge tossed a legal challenge from nearly two dozen states asking the court to reinstate the pipeline’s permits.

“The Department of Energy finally admitted to the worst-kept secret about the Keystone Pipeline,” Risch said Thursday. “President Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline sacrificed thousands of American jobs.”