Instead of joining 14 other Republican attorneys general in writing the President to protect his killing of the Keystone XL pipeline, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter did it on his own.
In an announcement on Thursday, Hunter said he sent a letter dated Feb. 11 to President Biden in which he urged him to rescind his order and resume construction on the line, saying the project is good for Americans, the environment and health and human safety.
“My letter to President Biden speaks from the heart as a fourth-generation Oklahoman who knows how important the oil and gas industry is to my fellow Oklahomans and Americans as a whole,” Hunter said.
The letter outlines the attorney general’s background in the industry, working first, on the blue-collar level as a roustabout in college, and eventually as attorney general where he protects the state’s economic activities from federal intrusion and bureaucracy.
Attorney General Hunter said, simply put, the Keystone Pipeline is good for America.
“Killing Keystone destroys the lives, livelihoods, careers and futures of those I love and care about. It also hurts local economies.”
He told the President that environmentally speaking the Keystone is a far better way to transport crude to the Gulf Coast rather than by train or truck.
“On behalf of the countless Oklahomans and Americans who benefit from Keystone, I implore the president to change his position and restart the Keystone Pipeline,” added in his announcement.
In the letter, the attorney general explains the reality that canceling the expansion of the pipeline undermines job growth and U.S. climate leadership, pointing specifically to then-President Obama and Vice President Biden’s 2014 State Department that published an environmental impact report saying the pipeline expansion wouldn’t have a serious or even substantial impact on greenhouse-gas emissions.
According to the impact report, the State Department says it expects extraction of oil in Canada and changes to the environment “regardless of any potential effects” from the Keystone XL project.
The letter also says canceling the project undermines job growth and, even under the president’s supposed priorities, in total, 10,000 union jobs will be lost because of the executive order killing the project, as well as $500 million allocated for indigenous suppliers and a $10 million fund for green jobs training.
Read the letter, here: https://bit.ly/3p7KtxP.