Arkansas welders say they lost their jobs due to ending of Keystone pipeline project
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FORT SMITH, Arkansas (KFSM) — Two welders from Arkansas say they were laid off because of the Keystone XL oil pipeline’s cancelation.
The pipeline would move up to 35 million gallons of crude oil daily from the oil sand fields from Canada through multiple states, connecting to other oil refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
First proposed in 2008, the pipeline has brought tensions between economic development and curbing the fossil fuel emissions causing climate change.
After saying he would do so before being elected, President Biden canceled further construction of the pipeline over environmental concerns. Former-President Trump revived the project after former President Obama’s administration halted it.
“We got laid off about three hours after he was inaugurated as President of the United States,” Neal Crabtree told 5NEWS. “He went from the inauguration ceremony directly to the White House. That was one of the first executive orders that he signed was to shut down the Keystone Pipeline.”
“It just don’t make sense to me,” Levi Turner said. “It kind of seems like he’s against us, not for us.”
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has joined 20 other attorneys general suing to overturn President Biden’s cancelation of the Keystone pipeline.
She released a statement Thursday (March 18) saying, “I warned President Biden to reverse course and reinstate the Keystone Pipeline permit, which would have saved thousands of jobs, but he refused.”
Not everyone in Arkansas shares the same sentiment as Rutledge towards the cancelation of the pipeline.
“Let’s get it straight real quick; Arkansas is not joining in this (lawsuit),” Michael Gray, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas, said. “Somebody that’s running third in a two-person primary for governor is bringing in this lawsuit on behalf of Arkansas.”
Gray is referencing Rutledge’s bid against Sara Huckabee-Sanders in obtaining the Republican nominee to be the next Arkansas Governor in 2022.
Crabtree and Turner say they agree with Rutledge’s decision.
“I hate that he (Neal Crabtree) got laid off,” Gray told 5NEWS when asked about the two men who say they lost their jobs. “But, however, I will tell you what the Biden Administration has done in the American Rescue Plan, that every Republican voted against it was to make sure that 798 hand and other hands like him have good access to unemployment benefits and that it continues until there’s a chance for them to find their next job.”
“That’s just a Band-Aid,” Crabtree said. “The guys I work with, we don’t want unemployment benefits or stimulus checks. We want to get out there and earn a paycheck.”
5NEWS reached out to Pipeliners Local Union 798 for comment on the situation. They said six Arkansans were laid off from the Keystone pipeline project and that 200 Arkansans lost an employment opportunity.
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