A general manager working on the Keystone XL pipeline said that “hundreds of guys” employed to build the controversial pipeline have already been laid off from their jobs after President Biden signed an executive order to halt construction.
The unnamed general manager of the pipeline’s construction said that the current project was responsible for “thousands of jobs” and that “hundreds of guys” from Wisconsin had already been laid off as a result of Biden’s order.
One of Biden’s first acts as president was to sign an executive order in order to revoke a key permit for the construction of the pipeline while also halting oil and gas leasing in an Alaskan wildlife refuge.
“The United States and the world face a climate crisis. That crisis must be met with action on a scale and at a speed commensurate with the need to avoid setting the world on a dangerous, potentially catastrophic, climate trajectory,” the order read. “Leaving the Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would not be consistent with my Administration’s economic and climate imperatives.”
The company responsible for the pipeline’s construction announced that it would “review the decision” shortly after the order, but noted that for the time being, they would be suspending the project until it could “review the decision, assess its implications, and consider its options.”
Biden’s move immediately drew criticism from Sen. Ted Cruz, who questioned the decision to nix the project during transportation secretary nominee Pete Buttigieg’s confirmation hearing.
“And with the stroke of a pen, President Biden has told those 11,000 workers, those union workers, ‘Your jobs are gone,’” Cruz said during Buttigieg’s confirmation hearing on Thursday morning. “Mr. Buttigieg, what do you say to those workers whose jobs have just been eliminated by presidential edict?”
The nominee argued that Biden’s climate agenda will create a net increase in jobs, to which Cruz replied, “So, for those workers, the answer is someone else will get a job?”
“The answer is that we are very eager to see those workers continue to be employed in good-paying union jobs, even if they might be different ones,” Buttigieg said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also opposed the move, saying he was “disappointed.”
“While we welcome the President’s commitment to fight climate change, we are disappointed but acknowledge the President’s decision to fulfill his election campaign promise on Keystone XL,” Trudeau said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a Washington Examiner request for comment.
