WASHINGTON – White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday joked with a reporter who asked when workers on the canceled Keystone XL pipeline would get ‘green jobs’ promised by President Biden.
Up to 11,000 jobs are expected to be lost after Biden’s day-one decision to halt construction of the pipeline, which would transport oil from Canada to Texas, immediately, leaving South Dakotans and 1,000 people immediately out of work would be.
“Where can they go for their green work?” Fox Doxy reporter Fox Doxy asked Psaki at her news conference Monday afternoon, referring to Biden’s promise to create well-paying unions in the green energy sector as his government seeks to end the country’s dependence on fossil fuels.
“This is something the government has promised and there is a gap now, so I’m just curious when that happens, when those people can count on it?” Doocy added.
“Well, I’ll welcome you to present your data of all the thousands and thousands of people who are not going to get a green job,” Psaki joked. “Maybe you can present it next time you’re here.”
‘But you said they would get green jobs. I’m just asking when does this happen? Doocy responded by noting that a report by the Laborers’ International Union of North America which found that 1,000 unions on the Keystone project would ‘disappear immediately’.
Another 10,000 construction works that are expected to be created by the project were also determined by Biden’s decision.
Prominent union leader and Biden ally, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka challenged the ruling in an Axios interview on HBO on Sunday, saying Biden should also have announced where he would replace the lost job.
But Psaki wiped out the criticism and made a vague promise that Biden would propose a plan for work in the coming weeks.
“He plans to share more details about the plan in the coming weeks,” she said when asked how Biden would support workers left unemployed by the decision.
Biden’s climate tsar John Kerry was also condemned by Republicans last month as ‘out of touch’ when he suggested that energy and coal workers affected by climate change ‘could go to work making the solar panels’.
Last month, the Biden government unveiled its $ 2 billion Green New Deal-fueled environmental plan that includes the removal of coal, oil and natural gas as electricity sources by 2035.