FILE – In this May 9, 2015, file photo, workers unload pipes in Worthing, S.D., for the Dakota Access oil pipeline that stretches from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota to Illinois. A federal appeals court on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021, upheld the ruling of a district judge who ordered a full environmental impact review of the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
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UPDATED 9:46 AM PT – Thursday, January 28, 2021
Democrats have maintained that they want to work with Republicans to pass legislation in Congress, but the two parties remain at odds on environmental efforts. GOP lawmakers are now rallying against Joe Biden’s climate agenda that seeks to rollback on the use of fossil fuels and pause new leases for oil and gas.
Biden signed an executive order placing the U.S. back into the Paris Accord in addition to the controversial move of canceling a permit needed to build the Keystone XL pipeline. Republicans said Biden is putting thousands of jobs at risk and prioritizing foreign nationals over American citizens.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) called the move devastating to residents in his state and Americans in general, stating Biden’s decision will further unemployment.
“It’s 11,000 jobs that are cut with one stroke of the pen of President Biden,” stated the Montana lawmaker. “It looks like President Biden is working on a ‘make America unemployed again’ kind of strategy, thinking more about Saudi Arabia workers than Montana workers and U.S. workers.”
GOP Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said that in less than a week, the Biden administration has risked America’s standing as a world leader in energy production. Additionally, Wyoming lawmakers Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said new restrictions on oil and gas will be a major blow to their state’s economy.
The $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline project was proposed by Canadian-owned TC Energy back in 2008 and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has since expressed his disappointment in Biden’s decision.
Please read my statement on Keystone XL: https://t.co/rgPY3Izp7U
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) January 20, 2021
Democrats said they will continue to pursue bipartisan legislation, but believe they will have to settle on moving forward without Republicans.
“There’s going to be some things you just can’t come to an agreement on because there’s philosophical differences,” stated Sen. Joe Manchin, (D-W.Va.). “You can’t get through that barrier and they can use whatever they need, but we ought to try to do what we can do in a bipartisan way.”
Meanwhile, the Biden administration claims it will replace those lost jobs with so-called “clean energy jobs” in the future.
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