President Donald Trump’s executive order to move forward on the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines could strengthen the push for a pipeline project from Lake Charles to the New Orleans area.
Trump signed five executive orders on Tuesday that would advance the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, suggesting that 28,000 jobs were at stake. Environmentalists opposed both projects.
Gifford Briggs, acting president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, tells The Advertiser that the Bayou Bridge Pipeline project has faced many of the same challenges as Keystone and Dakota Access. He says its construction would mean thousands of jobs and nearly $750 million invested in Louisiana’s infrastructure.
“Pipelines keep our communities safer and are a more environmentally friendly mode of transportation,” he says. “We must make the Bayou Bridge Pipeline a reality, and we must make American energy security our priority.”
Briggs notes the battle with environmentalists began with the Keystone XL pipeline project over eight years ago. “Since then we have seen the Dakota Access pipeline halted for President Obama’s environmental legacy,” he says. “This political legacy has kept tens of thousands of hard-working Americans from gaining employment and delayed the development of vital infrastructure.”
Former President Barack Obama left the Keystone project to languish for seven years during the permit process before rejecting it. The Dakota Access project was also stalled because of environmental concerns.
Briggs notes that Louisiana has “faced with the same political fight” over the Bayou Bridge Pipeline project.
But Anne Rolfes, founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, says she is concerned that Trump signed the executive orders so early in his administration.
“It shows he is president for the oil industry, not the people,” she says. Her organization is among other environmental groups opposing the Bayou Bridge Pipeline project.
