Thomas Catenacci
The Biden administration has failed to issue a congressionally-mandated study on the consequences of canceling the Keystone XL pipeline more than two weeks after it was due.
Under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the bipartisan bill signed into law in November 2021, the Department of Energy (DOE) was required to publish the report detailing the economic fallout from President Joe Biden’s decision revoking the pipeline’s federal permit, within 90 days.
The legislation ordered the DOE to estimate the number of jobs that were lost and the consumer energy costs caused by the decision over a 10-year period.
But the DOE has still not issued the report nearly three weeks after the Feb. 13 deadline set by Congress.
Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines — whose Defending Keystone Jobs Act, which mandated the study, was amended and inserted into the infrastructure bill — wrote to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in February, urging her to release the report. He was joined by 10 fellow Republican senators, including Energy Committee Ranking Member John Barrasso, Finance Committee Ranking Member Mike Crapo and Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch.
“President Biden’s Executive Order destroyed numerous jobs and changed countless lives. It also strained relationships with Canada and put the United States at a strategic disadvantage when it comes to energy security for us and our allies,” the Republican lawmakers wrote. “Knowing the full impact of the President’s actions is important to the American people.”
“We urge you to complete your obligation under the law and release your report to Congress immediately,” the letter said.
The DOE hasn’t responded to the letter or issued the report to Congress, a spokesperson for Daines confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation on Wednesday.
“We continue to make progress on this report as we prepare to deliver the final version to Congress,” an Energy Department spokesperson told the DCNF in a statement.
Biden revoked the March 2019 federal permit given to TC Energy Corporation, the pipeline’s operator, in a January 2021 executive order on “protecting public health and the environment.” The president said the U.S. must “prioritize the development of a clean energy economy.”
TC Energy signed a project labor agreement with four labor unions in August 2020, promising the creation of 42,000 “family-sustaining jobs” in the U.S. and $2 billion in total earnings for workers.
The pipeline would have carried crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to Steele City, Nebraska, where it would connect to an existing pipeline that stretches to the Gulf of Mexico.
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