EXCLUSIVE: Power the Future, a group that represents the interests of U.S. energy workers, published a video blasting the Biden administration for its decision two years ago to nix the Keystone XL pipeline.
The video, first obtained by Fox News Digital, noted the pipeline cancellation — which President Biden ordered via executive order on his first day in office in January 2021 — led to thousands of job losses. It also highlighted comments Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry made following the cancellation arguing that fossil fuel jobs would be replaced with clean energy jobs.
“The president of the United States has expressed in every comment he has made about climate the need to grow — the new jobs that pay better that are cleaner,” Kerry told reporters on Jan. 27, 2021.
“You look at the consequences of black lung for a miner, for instance, and measure that against — the fastest-growing job in the United States before COVID was solar power technician,” he continued. “The same people can do those jobs, but the choice of doing the solar power one now is a better choice. Similarly, you have the second-fastest growing job, pre-COVID, was wind turbine technician. This is happening.”
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Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry speaks during a press briefing at the White House on Jan. 27, 2021.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
“Unfortunately, workers have been fed a false narrative. No surprise, right?” Kerry said. “For the last few years, they’ve been fed the notion that somehow dealing with climate is coming at their expense. No, it’s not. What’s happening to them is happening because of other market forces already taking place.”
Power the Future, though, included in its video various media reports showing declining and lost green energy jobs in the solar and wind industries. The group also interviewed energy workers who ripped the notion that they could easily switch from one industry or specialty to another as suggested by Kerry.
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“It’s really easy to say, ‘hey, you can find another job.’ But they need to take into consideration the fact of what it took for us to get here,” one worker said in the video.
Another worker said it was “un-American” for Biden to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline with “the stroke of a pen.”
President Joe Biden signs his first executive orders, including one canceling the Keystone XL pipeline’s federal permits, in the White House on Jan. 20, 2021.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
TC Energy, the operator of the Keystone XL pipeline, ultimately gave up on the project in June 2021 as a result of Biden’s decision to cancel its federal permits. And last year, a federal judge tossed a legal challenge from nearly two dozen states asking the court to reinstate the pipeline’s permits.
The pipeline had been scheduled to be completed early this year and transport an additional 830,000 barrels of crude oil from Canada to the U.S. through an existing pipeline network, according to TC Energy. It was also projected to create thousands of jobs, many of which would have been union jobs.
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The Department of Energy released a congressionally-mandated report in December showing the project would have created between 16,149 and 59,468 construction jobs that would have lasted roughly two years and would have had a positive economic impact of between $3.4-9.6 billion. A project labor agreement signed in August 2020 alone promised the pipeline would create 42,000 American jobs and provide $2 billion in total wages.
This file photo shows a depot used to store pipes in Gascoyne, North Dakota, for the Keystone XL pipeline.
(Reuters)
“From canceling Keystone to trying to cancel our gas stoves, Joe Biden has pushed his failed agenda and hasn’t stopped since day one,” Daniel Turner, the founder and executive director of Power the Future, said in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. “It’s a pathetic coincidence that as this anniversary arrives, John Kerry is once again in Europe lecturing our families.”
“Joe Biden’s action cost tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars and every American family is still paying more every day,” Turner added.
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Kerry attended the World Economic Forum conference — a summit where international government and business leaders convene to talk about topics including climate change — taking place this week in Switzerland. He was criticized Tuesday after commenting during an event at the summit that efforts to save the planet from climate change were “almost extraterrestrial” given their scope.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.