Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg confirmed that the best way to move petroleum is through a pipeline.
“That’s why we have pipelines,” Buttigieg told Washington Post political reporter Eugene Scott during an interview Friday.
Scott asked Buttigieg about the efficiency of pipelines, reminding him that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm previously agreed pipelines “are still the best way to move oil” and asked where Buttigieg stood on the issue.
“Do you agree with that?” he asked.
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“Certainly,” Buttigieg responded, “when you’re talking about the efficiency of moving petroleum products, that’s why we have pipelines.”
Earlier this week, Granholm said that “pipe is the way to go” when moving oil from a “particular area of the country” to another.
The very next day, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry also said he agreed that pipelines were “more carbon-delivery efficient than trains or trucks or other forms of delivery.”
The affirmation shows that the climate czar and the transportation and energy secretaries are on the same page about the use of pipelines to move oil from one part of the country to another safely and securely.
In one of his first acts as president, Joe Biden, however, revoked the permit for the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline — a permit President Donald Trump authorized in one of his first acts as president.
“The Permit is hereby revoked,” read an executive order Biden signed during his first day in office. “Leaving the Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would not be consistent with my Administration’s economic and climate imperatives.”
The company constructing the 1,700-mile pipeline, which was expected to move roughly 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast, already had more than 1,000 people working on it. These positions were subsequently eliminated.
“We will begin a safe and orderly shut-down of construction,” Keystone XL President Richard Prior said shortly after the order.
While the January decision was accepted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney called Biden’s decision an “insult.”
“It is an insult directed at the United States most important ally and trading partner on day one of a new administration,” he said.
“The leader of our closest ally retroactively vetoed approval for a pipeline that exists and which is co-owned by the Canadian government, directly attacking by far the largest part of the Canada U.S. trade relationship, which is our energy industry and exports,” Kenney added.
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At the time of the Keystone pipeline’s closing, U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute President Marty Durbin also praised the use of pipelines to move oil in a “safe and efficient” manner.
“The pipeline, the most studied infrastructure project in American history, is already under construction and has cleared countless legal and environmental hurdles,” Durbin said at the time. “Halting construction will also impede the safe and efficient transport of oil and unfairly single out production from one of our closest and most important allies.”
