Today, the Association of Oil Pipe Lines (AOPL) applauded President Trump’s two new Executive Orders (EO) to advance energy infrastructure development and streamline Presidential crossborder pipeline permitting.
AOPL APPLAUDS PRESIDENT’S ACTIONS TO PROMOTE PIPELINES, JOBS & CONSUMER BENEFITS
Press Release
WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Association of Oil Pipe Lines (AOPL) applauded President Trump’s two new
Executive Orders (EO) to advance energy infrastructure development and streamline Presidential crossborder
pipeline permitting.
“The President knows pipelines are good for the American economy, create good-paying jobs and
help consumers,” said Andy Black, AOPL President and CEO.
A single major pipeline project can create thousands of jobs and supply billions of dollars in payroll
to U.S. workers. Construction of the Keystone XL pipeline would provide nationally over 42,000 U.S. jobs
and $2.1 billion in U.S. worker payroll, according to economic analysis by the U.S. State Department during
the Obama administration. While Keystone XL would support 6,800 construction jobs with $420 million in
payroll, it would also lead to 4,600 manufacturing jobs with $309 million in payroll, 4,400 jobs in trade with
$172 million in payroll, 2,200 jobs in finance and insurance with $131 million in payroll, 5,100 jobs in other
professional services with $343 million in payroll, 2,700 jobs in health services with $141 million in payroll,
and 5,700 jobs in food and accommodations with $278 million in payroll. Other proposed pipeline projects
can be expected similarly to create thousands of jobs with millions of dollars in worker payroll.
Local communities along a pipeline’s route also benefit from new pipelines. Federal government
analysis predicted a single construction camp would generate the equivalent of one full year of property
taxes for a rural county. State sales and construction equipment use tax revenues would generate $16.5
million for state government. In its first full year of operation, the Keystone XL would generate $11.8 million
in additional property taxes for counties in the State of Nebraska. Individual Nebraska counties would see
their property tax revenues increase 2 to 14 percent. New revenues from pipelines benefit the
communities directly, funding increases to school budgets, police and fire departments.
Local communities in Texas and New Mexico will benefit from new pipelines delivering production
from the Permian Basin to customers in Mexico. Local communities in North Dakota and Montana will
benefit from new pipelines delivering production from the Bakken to mainline pipelines in Canada that
deliver Canadian and northern U.S. production to Midwestern U.S. refineries and consumers. American
refineries designed to make transportation fuels from heavy grades of crude need new sources to replace
lost supplies no longer coming from Venezuela. Cross border projects will help replace heavy crude from
unstable regions of the world like Venezuela with secure and affordable supplies from a reliable ally and
trading partner, Canada. Consumers across America will benefit from new crude oil production pressuring
world energy prices downward.
The new EO will return the cross-border permit process to the simple, common sense place it
should be, which is energy movement across the borders with Canada and Mexico is good for America.
Cross-border permit applications reviewed under previous executive orders faced years of unnecessary
delay. While the cross-border process has temporarily improved under this administration, permanent
reform was needed to ensure future generations of Americans benefit from pipeline infrastructure
projects.
Crude oil pipelines will remain subject to comprehensive environmental reviews at the federal,
state and local levels. While today’s EO clarifies the decision to cross the border is a presidential
constitutional action not subject to federal statutes, laws applied to federal lands, waterbodies and species
management a pipeline may cross or impact as it travels through the United States remain in place and
unchanged.