President Donald Trump signed two executive orders Jan. 24 that could pave the way for completion of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, putting himself squarely in the conflict zone of the fossil-fuel war.
He said the orders would create 28,000 “great construction jobs” in the United States (Canada expects to create 4,500 jobs from its section of the pipeline), but he injected a cautionary note by subjecting both projects “to terms and conditions to be negotiated by us.”
Those conditions, which must be met to obtain a Presidential Permit for Keystone, are vague beyond Trump’s insistence that he wants better terms from TransCanada to ensure U.S. interests are fully met, including exclusive U.S. manufacturing of the pipeline, of which a large percentage has already been delivered.
In addition, TransCanada must also receive a permit from Nebraska for the route to carry 830,000 barrels per day of Alberta oil sands crude to the Texas Gulf Coast, a process that could take up to a year.
Trump invited TransCanada to “promptly resubmit its application to the Department of State” to overthrow the rejection of the pipeline in late 2015 by President Barack Obama.
TransCanada said it is “currently preparing the application” which former company executive Dennis McConaghy said should lead to a “final permitting determination within 60 days.”
Dakota Access proponent Energy Transfer made no immediate comments on Trump’s announcement.
Trump declined to answer a reporter who asked for his view of a months’ long demonstration against Dakota Access, including an encampment by protesters on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota.
Agreement in US, Canada
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, called the actions “a welcome sign.”
“I support consultation with the people affected by infrastructure projects, and we must ensure that they are built and operated responsibly.” She said federal agencies “have been sources of unnecessary delay and uncertainty. Reform is long overdue, and the president’s actions today are a good start.”
American Petroleum Institute president Jack Gerard welcomed the “new direction being taken by the administration to recognize the importance of our nation’s energy infrastructure by restoring the rule of law in the permitting process that’s critical to pipelines and other infrastructure projects.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan said it was “about time” that the pipelines moved forward.
“The unfortunate reality is that these important infrastructure projects were used by special interests to advance their radical anti-energy agenda and were therefore needlessly halted by the last administration to the detriment of America’s national interest,” he said in a statement.
Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said her government strongly believes “it is not just possible but essential to have strong policies on climate change (including the federal government’s planned carbon tax) and at the same time fulfill our duty to get natural resources to market.
Opposition pledges strong response
Tiernan Sittenfeld, a lobbyist at the League of Conservation voters, said “no amount of ‘alternative facts’ can change the reality that these dirty and dangerous pipelines are a bad deal for clean air, safe drinking water and the communities living along the routes.”
For Trump, the two pipelines set the stage for a head-on clash with environmentalists, landowners and indigenous peoples.
If there was any doubt about the prospect of legal challenges and disruption of pipeline construction that was quickly removed Jan. 24 when hundreds of activists gathered outside the White House.
A spokesman for the Sierra Club said the anti-pipeline movement won’t even bother trying to sway Trump as it did Obama.
“You’re going to see much more aggressive lawsuits (and) more protests and tension on the streets. You’re also going to see much more resistance in the communities directly impacted.”
