Ratcliffe Denounces President's Ideological Decision on Keystone XL

Press Release

After a stunningly long decision process dragged out over almost his entire tenure, the President has rejected TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline application. In one of his first orders of business of the 114th Congress, U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe signed on as an original cosponsor to legislation to approve and build the Keystone XL Pipeline. The full U.S. House of Representatives passed the legislation with Ratcliffe's support in January, followed quickly by the Senate. But the President vetoed this commonsense measure.

"The Keystone XL pipeline would have created an estimated 42,000 American jobs, while growing our economy and supporting increased manufacturing and trade," said Ratcliffe. "The President's decision is a direct attack on the folks who need these jobs the most, and the pipeline is extremely important to states like Texas. To put this impact of this decision into perspective, the 42,000 jobs the Keystone XL would create are 12,000 more than the total unemployed population across the entire 4th Congressional District," Ratcliffe added.

On September 19, 2008, the Canadian energy and infrastructure company TransCanada filed an application with the U.S. Department of State to build the Keystone XL pipeline, an expansion of the existing Keystone pipeline. The landmark Keystone XL pipeline expansion could carry up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day 875 miles from Alberta, Canada to Steele City, Nebraska. From there, the oil would go to refineries in the Midwest and Texas. Additionally, the existing pipeline contains 6 Pump Stations in Texas, one of which is in Delta County. Just this week, TransCanada asked for the decision to be delayed as it sought a resolution with the state of Nebraska regarding the route of the pipeline.

"As a then-Senator in 2008, Obama said that building a pipeline like this would deliver clean natural gas and create good-paying jobs in the process," said Ratcliffe. "But after becoming President, he moved to delay the Keystone XL because of political concessions to his environmentalist base. Now, he has moved to completely block it due to his radical climate agenda. It is unacceptable that he continues to play political games with the livelihoods of the American people," Ratcliffe added.

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