Yesterday, I spoke with Neil Cavuto on Fox Business News about President Obama’s comments dismissing the benefits of potential Keystone XL pipeline jobs because many are temporary. Why demean temporary jobs? Infrastructure jobs, by their very nature, are temporary. That does not make them any less valuable to workers, their families or the U.S. economy. During my interview, I outlined just a few of the economic benefits of the Keystone XL pipeline:
Creates American jobs: Whether part-time or full-time, these are jobs that require no money from the federal government. These will be private sector businesses creating private sector jobs. Many groups debate the actual number of jobs that the project would create. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce claims it could create 250,000 permanent U.S. jobs. The State Department environmental review estimated that Keystone would support 42,000 temporary jobs over its two-year construction period — about 3,900 of them in construction, the rest in indirect support jobs, such as food service. Regardless of the actual numbers, one thing is clear: Keystone would create much needed American jobs.
Supports the thriving U.S. energy sector: The administration regularly speaks about the need for building and improving roads and bridges and creating infrastructure projects to generate jobs and grow the economy. Well, the Keystone pipeline is a massive infrastructure project, but better. Unlike roads and bridges, the pipeline would support an ongoing, thriving U.S. industry – the energy sector.
Boosts the U.S. economy: The pipeline will, among other things, reduce the cost of transporting oil. This, in turn, will lower oil prices. Reducing oil prices gives a boost to the economy and allows businesses to create more jobs. I’ve spoken to many CEO’s in the restaurant industry lately about this. They all experienced an increase in their business around June this year; the same time that energy prices went down.
Building the Keystone XL pipeline is in interest of the American economy as well as the American working and middle class. Let’s not demean temporary jobs. By the way, that White House job is temporary.
To view my interview with Neil Cavuto, click here.