Trump Lies About Keystone XL, Turns His Back on Unions and Fails at Negotiating “Best Deal” for America With U.S. Steel for Pipelines

By Mark Hefflinger and Jane Kleeb - Bold Alliance, March 3, 2017

President Trump on Thursday backtracked on his Presidential Memorandum and countless claims that all pipelines in the U.S. would now be made with American-made steel — including Keystone XL — and said that TransCanada could use non-American steel for the foreign tarsands export pipeline.

“The Keystone XL pipeline is currently in the process of being constructed, so it does not count as a new, retrofitted, repaired, or expanded pipeline,” a White House spokeswoman told Politico on Thursday.

The Keystone XL pipeline does not have a Presidential permit, nor a permit from the State of Nebraska. Construction of the Keystone XL pipeline has not started, which in turn means the White House lied to the press yesterday.

“Trump is a liar and a fraud,” said Bold Alliance president Jane Kleeb. “Trump just got bullied by a foreign corporation, using foreign steel, carrying foreign oil, headed to the foreign export market all while opening a reckless door for foreign interests to use eminent domain for private gain against American landowners.”

On. Jan. 24, President Trump held an event to publicly sign a trio of Presidential Memorandums — one that said that “to the maximum extent possible and to the extent permitted by law” companies must use U.S. steel on all new pipelines, “as well as retrofitted, repaired, or expanded pipelines.” The memo goes on to further stipulate that this means the steel must be in the U.S. “from the initial melting stage through the application of coatings,” and rules out “steel or iron material or products manufactured abroad from semi-finished steel or iron from the United States” as qualifying as American-made.

The other two memos President Trump signed during the same ceremony on Jan. 24 aimed to fast-track the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. Since Jan. 24, Trump has repeatedly mentioned the “only U.S. steel” requirement in the same breath as his memos expediting completion of Keystone XL and Dakota Access.

Feb. 28, 2017 (Trump’s address to Congress):
“We have cleared the way for the construction of the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines, thereby creating tens of thousands of jobs, and I’ve issued a new directive that new American pipelines be made with American steel.” (http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trumps-promises-about-american-steel-come-deceptive-fine-print)

Feb. 23, 2017:
“We put you heavy into the pipeline business because we approved, as you know, the Keystone pipeline and Dakota, but they have to buy, meaning steel, so I’ll say U.S. steel, but steel made in this country and pipelines made in this country,” Trump told United States Steel CEO Mario Longhi during a meeting of business leaders at the White House, CNBC reported. (http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/23/trump-keystone-dakota-access-pipeline-makers-must-buy-us-steel.html)

Jan. 30, 2017:
“If people want to build pipelines on our land, we want the pipe to be … manufactured here,” Trump told a meeting with small business leaders, CNBC reported. “You will see a level of quality that you’re not going to see when they bring the pipe from far distances, have to bring it in small chunks and then fabricate it on the land,” he continued. “Give me a break. We can do much better than that, and we’re going to do it much better, and it’s going to end up costing less money. Believe me.” He also suggested one or both of the companies had planned on procuring materials for the projects from unnamed markets — “and I won’t tell you where, but you wouldn’t be happy” — an apparent reference to overseas pipe or steel makers. (http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/26/trumps-plan-to-force-pipeline-makers-to-use-us-steel-is-dictatorial-and-a-bad-idea.html)

Meanwhile, TransCanada is reported to have “contracted with an Indian multi-national company, the Mumbai-based Welspun Corp Limited, and a Russian company, Evraz, to manufacture steel pipe for KXL,” and “there is strong evidence to suggest that almost half of the primary material input for KXL—steel pipe—will not even be produced in the United States.” (https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/sites/ilr.cornell.edu/files/GLI_KeystoneXL_012312_FIN.pdf)

Trump has also stated repeatedly that the U.S. deserves a cut of the profits from Keystone XL:

May 26, 2016:
“I want the Keystone pipeline, but the people of the United States should be given a significant piece of the profits,” Trump said at a press conference before an energy speech in North Dakota, TheHill reported. (http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/281407-trump-demands-share-of-profits-in-exchange-for-keystone-approval)

November 2015:
“Trump told primary voters in November that he would want the government to get 25 percent of Keystone’s profits,” Politico reports. (http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/donald-trump-keystone-canada-energy-224204)

Background on Nebraska opposition to Keystone XL:
http://boldnebraska.org/kxleo

In Nebraska, the pipeline permit application process at the Public Service Commission can take eight months to a year. The process calls for public hearings and other opportunities for comment, including an official intervenor process where landowners and others are represented by attorneys, and testimony is heard from experts and others in a quasi-judicial setting.

TransCanada also cannot apply to use eminent domain authority again to take farmers’ and ranchers’ land against their will until September 2017, according to applicable Nebraska state law governing the use of eminent domain. The collective of Nebraska landowners who held out against selling their land to TransCanada remains strong — many are still in court suing TransCanada for the money they have already spent on attorneys and court costs battling eminent domain for over six years.

President Trump’s State Dept. abandoned established procedure and eliminated any opportunity for public comment on TransCanada’s federal permit application and the Environmental Impact Statement for Keystone XL, the same review that led Sec. Kerry and President Obama to determine the pipeline was not in the U.S. national interest. The State Dept. received more than 1 million comments from citizens the last time around.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.