The Biden administration has promised “green jobs” for workers affected by the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline and other executive actions, so when will those jobs be available and where can the unemployed go to apply?
The question was posed Monday by Fox News’ Peter Doocy in a tense exchange with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
Doocy noted that there’s a “gap” between the promise and any action, and “so I’m just curious when that happens — when those people can count on that.”
“Well,” Psaki began, “I’d certainly welcome you to present your data of all the thousands and thousands of people who who won’t be getting a green job.”
With a condescending tone, she continued: “Maybe next time you’re here, you can present that.”
“But you said that they would be getting green jobs,” Doocy replied. “I’m just asking when that happens.”
The Fox News White House correspondent cited AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, noting the union boss is a longtime friend of Biden.
Trumka, regarding Biden’s executive order on his first day in office, said: “I wish he had paired that more carefully with things that he did second, by saying, Here’s where we are creating the jobs.”
Doocy also cited the Laborers International Union of North America’s estimate that the pipeline cancellation will eliminate 1,000 existing union jobs and 10,000 projected jobs.
An October 2020 report said the pipeline would create about 13,000 high-paying jobs.
Psaki argued that Biden has a plan that will be announced in “weeks or months.”
“President Biden has proposed a climate plan with transformative investments and infrastructure. And laid out a plan that would not only create millions of good union jobs but also help tackle the climate crisis,” Psaki said.
Doocy noted that White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy and climate czar John Kerry weren’t at the White House when Biden issued his order revoking the pipeline permit.
“But there are people living paycheck to paycheck,” Doocy said. “There are people out of jobs once the Keystone pipeline stopped construction. It’s been 12 days since Gina McCarthy and John Kerry were here. It’s been 19 days since that [executive order], so what do those people who need money now — when do they get their green jobs?”
When pressed by a reporter, Kerry suggested oil and gas workers could be retrained to make solar panels.
See the exchange:
Fox News’s Peter Doocy is back and he’s brought the receipts on energy to Jen Psaki.
Needless to say, she didn’t like that he pressed her on what’s the plan for laid off workers to get these fantastical “green” jobs that Biden and Kerry keep talking about (1/2) pic.twitter.com/czz45M9tXK
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 8, 2021
Among the critics of Biden’s cancellation of the pipeline are Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.
Manchin argued in a Fox News interview that the pipeline was a safer way to transport oil than ships or trains.
Last week, the personal impact of Biden’s executive order was captured in an interview with longtime oil and gas industry workers David and Kristina Dickerson.
“I feel pretty betrayed,” David, a 31-year veteran of the industry, said Wednesday morning on “Fox & Friends.”
A Fox Business Network feature showed the impact of the loss of thousands of jobs on towns from Canada to Texas.
FBN spoke with truck driver Chris Olson in Crete, Nebraska, who fears the price of diesel fuel will rise and wonders what someone who has spent decades in the oil industry should do now.
“This is flyover country. That’s what they call us. It’s like we don’t even exist,” he said. “That’s pretty much what they think of us out here.”
See an FBN report on the impact of the Keystone cancellation:
Tim McMillan, chief executive of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, told Reuters that Biden’s action “is killing thousands of Canadian and American jobs at a time when both economies badly need private investment” and wiped out equity investment in the pipeline by Canadian indigenous groups.
WND reported the president of the United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters complained that Biden gave in to the “voices of fringe activists” when he killed the Keystone XL pipeline.
But it shouldn’t have been a surprise, because the union endorsed Biden after he announced he would make the move.
Mark McManus argued that there’s no issue with the environment, insisting that when “built with union labor by the men and women of the United Association, pipelines like Keystone XL remain the safest and most efficient modes of energy transportation in the world.”
Without the pipeline, the oil must be transported with trains that are subject to derailing.
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This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
