Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr argued on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that President Biden’s move to cancel the Keystone XL oil pipeline project was a “political reward for those that supported the Biden-Harris administration.”
He also warned the “political symbolism” of cancelling the project will have a “real-world impact.”
Carr was one of the 14 state attorneys general who wrote a letter to President Biden on Tuesday, calling for a reversal of the cancellation of the Keystone XL oil pipeline project. The group accused the president of a “unilateral and rushed decision to revoke the 2019 Presidential Permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.”
The letter warns that Biden’s “decision will result in devastating damage to many of our states and local communities.”
In a series of orders aimed at combating climate change, President Biden revoked the permit for the 1,700-mile pipeline on his first day in office, ending a project that was expected to employ more than 11,000 Americans this year.
Carr said he was “concerned” and explained that he believes a consequence will be “higher fuel costs for families and for businesses in Georgia and around the country.” He also stressed that the move will “disrupt industries like agriculture, which is our number one industry in Georgia, and manufacturing and consumer products.”
“But the biggest impact it’s going to have is on the jobs that were going to be created by this particular project,” Carr continued, noting that that would include “10,000 construction jobs.”
“That’s families that are going to be devastated by the decision to pull this permit,” he stressed.
He added that “this is an issue where we in the United States have done a great job of becoming more energy independent and if this pipeline gets shut down, instead of dealing with one of our great allies and trading partners in Canada, we’re going to be relying more on crude oil from Russia and from Venezuela and from the Middle East.“
Carr said that Biden’s move to halt the project “doesn’t make any sense to me” because “this is going to impact folks here at home, real families, real jobs.”
In remarks made by Biden last month before signing executive actions on tackling climate change, the president pointed to “a key plank” of his Build Back Better Recovery Plan, which he noted “is building a modern, resilient climate infrastructure and clean energy future that will create millions of good-paying union jobs.”
“What they’re talking about is theoretical jobs that they haven’t produced, they have no plan for,” Carr said on Thursday.
He then pointed out that the Keystone XL oil pipeline project “was a safe, reliable project that was going to employ people now.”
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“This is political symbolism that has dramatic, real world impact and it isn’t right,” he stressed.
