Axing Keystone XL pipeline cost thousands of jobs, billions of dollars, Energy Department says

 President Biden‘s cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline that would have carried 800,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to the Gulf Coast likely cost thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity, according to a new report from the Department of Energy.

The 18-page document, based on a literature review of past studies, concluded that the project would have produced 16,149 to 59,468 temporary jobs with an economic impact of $3.4 billion to $9.6 billion, largely confirming criticism from Republicans and the energy sector about the impact of axing its development.

DOE went on to say that the “high-end figure overstates jobs” because some would have been created abroad and the figure included jobs from a different, already built section of the original Keystone pipeline. It reiterated that based on a 2014 State Department study, only about 50 of the jobs would have been permanent once the XL extension was operational and estimated that 3,900 direct jobs and 21,050 total jobs would have been created during construction.

The effect on consumer prices from the project’s cancellation was inconclusive, the report stated, “particularly in light of the changes that have occurred in Canadian and U.S. crude oil markets since the KXL pipeline was proposed...more