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Attorney General Hunter to Pres. Biden: Killing Keystone is Bad for America

OKLAHOMA CITY – In a letter urging the president to allow workers to resume construction on the Keystone XL Pipeline, Attorney General Mike Hunter today outlined why the project is good for Americans, for the environment and for health and human safety.

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.

“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,” Attorney General Hunter said. “Killing Keystone destroys the lives, livelihoods, careers and futures of those I love and care about. It also hurts local economies. Environmentally speaking, the Keystone is a far better way to transport crude to the Gulf Coast, rather than by train or tuck. 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.”

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.

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