Senator Joe Manchin wrote a letter to President Biden on Tuesday asking him to rethink his executive order by revoking the license for the Keystone XL pipeline.
“Pipelines remain the safest way to transport our oil and natural gas resources and support thousands of well-paid American union jobs,” wrote the West Virginia Democrat.
On his first day in office, the president canceled the pipeline license, which Donald Trump had reinstated. The long-disputed project was expected to deliver about 800,000 barrels of Canadian crude oil to the United States
“In the absence of access to pipelines, crude oil will continue to find its way to the market by increasing dependence on other means of transport, such as trucks and railways, which have a higher number of crude oil launches per tonne-mile. reported than pipelines, “noted Manchin.
“I encourage you to reconsider your decision to revoke the cross-border license for the Keystone XL pipeline and to consider the potential impacts of any future action on security, jobs and energy security,” he added.
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Manchin, along with another Democratic Senator Jon Tester, Mont., Joined the Republicans in a budget resolution to support the pipeline. But they later voted for an amendment by Majority Leading Senator Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., to eliminate that resolution.
Biden immediately drew the ire of Republicans by revoking the license, but more recently it has drawn criticism from allies.
“I wish he hadn’t done that on the first day,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told Axios on HBO.
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“I wish he had more carefully matched what he did in second place, saying that this is where we are creating jobs,” he said.
Labor groups said Biden’s first-day decision to annul the Keystone pipeline eliminated 1,000 union jobs straight away and could kill ten times as much construction jobs as the project expected to create. The jobs were mostly seasonal.
Opponents of the pipeline point to his fear of a spill and say that allowing the project to move forward would curb decades of oil dependence amid government pressure for a 100% clean energy-based USA by 2050.
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Manchin’s support for gas pipelines could undermine Democratic climate legislation in Congress. Moderate Manchin is one of the most powerful senators, as he could fluctuate on a number of issues in the 50-50 division of the Senate.