The personal impact of President Joe Biden’s executive order canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline along with thousands of jobs 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.”
An October 2020 report said the pipeline would create about 13,000 high-paying jobs, but Biden revoked the March 2019 permit.
David said he had to dip into his retirement fund as he waited for the Keystone project to move forward.
“We’ve been depending on this to happen, and it just all of a sudden got ripped out from under us and we’re not going to be able to do it now,” he said.
He argued that addressing environmental concerns requires a more gradual approach.
“It’s a good thought, but it’s not a well-thought-out plan. They haven’t got it perfect,” David said. “And we’re still dependent on fossil fuel. We’re going to use this crude oil no matter what.”
Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, has suggested oil and gas workers could be retrained to make solar panels.
Kristina said no one has reached out to her or her husband about alternative jobs in the energy industry. In any case, David said, he would have difficulty transitioning this late in his career.
“This is about all I know how to do besides farming,” David said. “I’m 53 years old, and it’s too late for me to start over again.
“But it’s way too early for me to retire.”
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.
Last week, as WND reported, the boss of a major union 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.
United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters President 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.
Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement expressing his disappointment with Biden for revoking the pipeline permit while Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said he was “deeply disturbed” and threatened legal action.
Kenney retorted: “That’s not how you treat a friend and ally.”
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