Trump Misleadingly Claims Keystone Pipeline Will Produce 28,000 Jobs
President Donald Trump late Tuesday morning signed an executive order green-lighting the advancement of two highly-controversial oil pipelines, the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access pipeline. The CEO of the company that owns the Dakota Access pipeline, Kelcy Warren of Energy Transfer Partners, has donated almost $7 million to GOP super PACS, including one that supported Trump, and to individual Republican candidates and the RNC, according to The Washington Post.
“Trump has been the recipient of generous political contributions from Energy Transfer chief executive Kelcy Warren,” The Post reported in November.
“Warren this year has made $1.53 million in campaign contributions to super PACs and $252,300 to individual campaigns and the GOP, according to the Center for Responsive Politics,” the Post reported. “In June 2015, he gave $5 million to Opportunity and Freedom PAC, which supported Rick Perry’s presidential campaign. The Trump Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that includes Trump’s campaign, the Republican National Committee and some state parties, received a $100,000 contribution from Warren on June 29.”
The sum of those figures alone is nearly $7 million: $6,882,300 to be exact.
Reuters notes that Warren “gave $100,000 to the Trump Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that includes the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, the Republican Party of Arkansas and the Connecticut Republican Party.”
Trump had a financial interest in the Dakota Access pipeline, but he may have sold it off.
“Trump’s 2016 federal disclosure forms show he owned between $15,000 and $50,000 in stock in Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners. That’s down from between $500,000 and $1 million a year earlier,” CBS News reported in late November. “Trump also owns between $100,000 and $250,000 in Phillips 66, which has a one-quarter share of Dakota Access.”
An article published Tuesday in the International Business Times appears to confirm Trump’s financial interests in Energy Transfer Partners and Phillips 66. It also states that “Trump’s pick for Secretary of Energy Rick Perry sits on the board of Energy Transfer Partners.”
But The Washington Post reported November 23 that “President-elect Donald Trump sold off his shares of Energy Transfer Partners, the owner of the $3.7 billion Dakota Access pipeline that has become the focus of protests by Native American and environmental groups, according to his spokeswoman Hope Hicks.”
It did not mention his holdings in Phillips 66, which Trump could still own. In December, CNBC reported “Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not say if he also sold his shares of Phillips 66.”
Trump misleadingly on Tuesday claimed the Keystone XL pipeline will produce 28,000 jobs. The pipelines will not, as many of their supporters claim, create “thousands” of jobs – those jobs are temporary. Keystone is expected to create just 40 or so permanent jobs.
Environmental groups and others strongly oppose the construction of both pipelines. Trump earlier Tuesday lied, claiming he had won environmental awards, which The Washington Post disputes. The Post, awarding Trump “Four Pinocchios,” notes Trump has been making the claim for the last six years, and no one has been able to find any evidence supporting it.