PHILIP, S.D. – A year after Biden signed an executive order killing the Keystone XL pipeline, a small town in rural South Dakota is still dealing with the fallout of the decision.
“We are the collateral damage,” West Central Electric Cooperative CEO Jeff Birkeland told Fox News. “Our one chance in a lifetime to get some opportunity, some growth, to lower our rates for our members, and he took it away from us.”
President Biden signed a Jan 21, 2021, executive order revoking the building permit for the 1,200-mile Keystone XL project, would have carried oil through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. Biden ended the multi-billion-dollar over concerns about its potential impacts on the climate.
“The Keystone XL pipeline disserves the U.S. national interest,” Biden said in the order.
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Within a week, construction stopped, workers lost their jobs and families left the small towns along the pipeline’s path, the manager of one such town’s only motel told Fox News.
Canada-based TC Energy approached West Central in 2008 to provide power for two pumping stations along the Keystone XL pipeline. West Central, an energy cooperative, has 3,700 members and was one of three electric co-ops in South Dakota working on substations for the project.
West Central Electric Cooperative office in Philip, South Dakota
Birkeland worked on the project for 13 years. His tenure saw President Obama halt the pipeline in 2015 and President Trump revive it in 2017.
West Central had invested $9 million into building the two nearly complete substations when Biden halted the project, the energy CEO told Fox.
“All this money—Gone,” Birkeland said. “All this material was created for one specific project – designed, engineered – and now it’s just worthless, it’s salvage value.”
Located in Philip, a town with a population of 779, the pipeline would have brought opportunities in every…
Source : foxnews
