Biden's Keystone XL screw up results in some angry Americans

 Washington Examiner:

It felt like a gut punch.

That's how South Dakota small business owner Laurie Cox described how she felt when news broke that Canadian developer TC Energy officially pulled the plug on the Keystone XL pipeline. The monumental decision to walk away from the $8 billion project was confirmed Wednesday and came at a devastating cost to communities that pinned their hopes and investments on the success of the massive cross-border venture.

The decision to call it quits left people like Cox, who owns a two-story hotel that housed pipeline workers in Midland, South Dakota, feeling abandoned and angry.

"I am disappointed that TC Energy is giving up the fight," she told the Washington Examiner. "I know they and their subcontractors have lost a lot on this, but I feel like they have given up too soon."

KEYSTONE XL DEVELOPER TO PULL THE PLUG ON PIPELINE

If the plans had stayed in place, the Keystone XL would have connected two points of an existing pipeline, also called Keystone, that carries Canadian crude oil into the United States. Developers pitched the Keystone XL to towns along its route as a major investment opportunity and a chance at a better life. Places that lacked hospitals, good schools, or access to basic things like grocery stores were told their worries would be over soon.

"Their promises lead to our communities' investments," Cox said. "This leaves our communities holding a lot of debt."

She added, "[TC Energy's] billions lost to our millions or tens of thousands should be looked at as relative figures. Our total loss will be seen in months and years to come."

The pipeline news also hit Peter Bardeson, business manager for the Laborers, Local 620 union in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, hard.

Similar to Cox, Bardeson believes the motives behind canceling the pipeline were purely political, and he blames the current administration.

"I am so disappointed, pissed off, angry for what Joe [Biden] has done to the position we were in when it comes to energy production in the U.S," Bardeson said. "We were the largest producers of oil, gas, natural gas, and propane. He is choking the U.S. with the overturning of almost all of President Trump's policies."

Gaylord Lincoln, a semi-retired mechanic who splits his time between South Dakota and Florida, said he's sick of "decent, hard-working people paying the price" for decisions made in Washington, D.C.

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Biden made the mistake of pandering to the anti-energy left rather than looking out for the interest of Americans and American energy independence.  He is destroying people's lives on the altar of Big Green.