President Joe Biden spent his first day in the White House signing a spate of executive orders aimed at undoing the Trump administration’s policies. One of them sparked outrage on Facebook over its impact on U.S. posts.
On January 20, Biden signed an order revoking the permit to build the Keystone XL pipeline. In a Facebook post published the same day, one user said the move would cost thousands of jobs.
“By revoking the Keystone pipeline permit, Biden is destroying 11,000 jobs and about $ 2 billion in wages,” the post said. “Democrats could not even get through Day 1 without killing jobs for middle-class Americans.”
The post was marked as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its news feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
We have seen several similar posts offer different figures for how many jobs were lost as a result of Biden’s executive order, ranging from 12,000 to 83,000. So we wanted to take a closer look.
TC Energy Corp, the Canadian company that owns the Keystone XL pipeline with the Alberta government, said more than 1,000 people were out of work because of Biden’s executive order. The $ 11,000 and $ 2 billion figures quoted in the Facebook post are estimates published by the company, but most posts will be temporary.
We reached the user who published the post for their testimony, but we did not hear it.
What Biden’s order does
The Keystone XL pipeline is an international project that is still in progress. Without the support of the US government, it is effectively stopped.
The 875-mile pipeline would transport a heavy crude oil blend from Western Canada to Steele City, Neb, where it would be connected to another leg that stretches to the Gulf Coast refineries.
Biden’s order revokes the permit granted on March 29, 2019 by then-President Donald Trump on the grounds that it is harmful to the environment.
While a State Department report of 11 volumes on the Keystone XL pipeline in 2014 found that it would not contribute significantly to carbon pollution, critics say the project threatens Alberta’s rivers and forests. And the project has become a symbol for the political debate on fossil fuels.
The Obama-era State Department denied TC Energy’s request for a 2015 permit. Construction began in April 2020, but in the same month, a federal court said the project needed to undergo a full review of endangered species. TC Energy is appealing the ruling, but the Supreme Court upheld it in July.
Before Biden signed his executive order, only a portion of the 1.2-kilometer pipeline was completed in Montana near the U.S.-Canada border.
Thousands lost jobs, but most are temporary
In the past few years, we have reviewed many allegations that the Keystone XL pipeline would create thousands of U.S. jobs. Several of them do not have a context about the duration and nature of these positions, and this Facebook post is similar.
In a January 20 statement, TC Energy said Biden’s order would “directly lead to the dismissal of thousands of union workers.” It is not specified exactly how many jobs will be lost.
President Richard Prior told the Associated Press that the dismissal would number more than 1,000. We contacted TC Energy for more information, but we have not heard of it yet.
The figure of 11,000 in the Facebook message appears to stem from a press release on October 28 on the pipeline’s website.
In October, TC Energy awarded contracts to six U.S. union contractors to build the 2021 Keystone XL pipeline in three states. The contractors were ‘responsible for hiring 7,000 union workers’.
RELATED: Keystone XL pipeline: Unbuilt, opposed to Biden, caught in lawsuits
“Combined with additional 2021 contracts to be announced later, the total number of U.S. union workers building Keystone XL in 2021 will exceed 8,000 and $ 900 million in gross wages,” the release reads. “In total, Keystone XL is expected to employ more than 11,000 Americans by 2021, which will create more than $ 1.6 billion in gross wages.”
This is close to what the Department of Foreign Affairs found in its 2014 report.
In the report, the agency writes that 10,400 estimated positions for seasonal construction work will last four to eight months. Since the Ministry of Foreign Affairs defines ‘work’ as ‘one post to be filled for 1 year’, this will mean approximately 3,900 posts over a period of two years.
In short: Most estimated jobs were temporary.
The State Department predicted that no more than 50 jobs, some of which could be in Canada, would be needed to maintain the pipeline. Of these, thirty-five would be permanent, while 15 would be temporary contractors.
We came out to the White House for comment, but we had not heard of it yet.
Our verdict
A Facebook report says Biden’s executive order to recall the Keystone XL pipeline ‘destroyed 11,000 jobs.’
The number is an estimate, and the claim has no context over the longevity of Keystone work.
TC Energy said more than 1,000 people were out of work due to Biden’s executive order. In October, the company said it would employ more than 11,000 Americans by 2021 and generate more than $ 1.6 in gross wages.
But TC Energy and the foreign ministry said most of these posts would be temporary. A 2014 report found that the company would only need 50 employees to maintain the Keystone XL pipeline once it is completed, of which 35 are permanent.
Temporary work is still work. But this message can leave the wrong impression without full context. We rate it Half true.