WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed executive actions Tuesday to advance construction of the huge Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, moving aggressively to overhaul America’s energy policy and dealing a swift blow to former President Barack Obama’s legacy on climate change.
Trump told reporters at the White House the pipelines will be subject to conditions being negotiated by U.S. officials — including a requirement that the pipe itself be manufactured in America.
“From now on we are going to start making pipelines in the United States,” Trump said from the Oval Office.
On Keystone, the memorandum by Trump invites the pipeline builder, TransCanada, to resubmit its application to the State Department for a presidential permit to construct and operate the pipeline.
Trump’s memo on the Dakota Access pipeline says its construction and operation will serve the national interest. The memo orders the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review and approve construction and easement requests in an expedited manner for a project that has led to major protests by American Indian groups and their supporters.
Environmental groups blasted Tuesday’s order as a bid by Trump to serve the oil industry. Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is a former Exxon Mobil CEO, and his pick for energy secretary, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, owns stock in Energy Transfers.
“Donald Trump has been in office for four days and he’s already proving to be the dangerous threat to our climate we feared he would be,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club.
As a practical matter, the Dakota Access project is likely to be completed first — perhaps years before Keystone, which must cross a U.S. border and faces a more complicated review process. The company building the Dakota pipeline says it is complete except for the section that would pass under the Missouri River near a camp in North Dakota where pipeline opponents are demonstrating.
Obama halted the proposed Keystone XL pipeline in late 2015, declaring it would undercut U.S. efforts to clinch a global climate change deal that was a centerpiece of his environmental agenda. The pipeline would run from Canada to Nebraska, where it would join other lines already leading to refineries along the Gulf Coast. A presidential permit is needed because the pipeline would cross the northern U.S border.
The Army decided last year to explore alternate routes for the Dakota pipeline after the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and its supporters said it threatened drinking water and Native American cultural sites. The company developing the 1,200-mile pipeline, Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, disputes that and has said the pipeline would be safe.
The Dakota pipeline is to carry North Dakota oil through South Dakota and Iowa to a shipping point in Illinois.
“Today’s news is a breath of fresh air, and proof that President Trump won’t let radical special-interest groups stand in the way of doing what’s best for American workers,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate.
Nearly 600 pipeline opponents have been arrested in North Dakota since last year. An encampment on Corps land along the pipeline route was home to thousands of protesters who call themselves “water protectors,” though the camp’s population has thinned due to harsh winter weather and a plea by Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault for the camp to disband.
The Sierra Club’s Brune and other activists said the fight against the projects was not over.
“It’s a dark day for reason, but we will continue the fight,” said Bill McKibben, co-founder of the environmental group 350.org and a leader of a five-year fight against Keystone XL.