GREAT FALLS, Mont. —U.S. Senator Steve Daines today praised President Donald J. Trump’s swift action to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.
“After too many years of talk and delays, today is a long awaited day for Montana’s counties that badly need the tax revenue of this job-creating pipeline,” Daines stated. “Thanks to President Trump we took a big step towards finally breaking ground and building the Keystone XL pipeline.”
Richard Dunbar, President of the Montana Association of Oil, Gas, and Coal Counties: “The oil and gas counties are just glad that this project is finally getting permitted. It has been a long-awaited process. I have been involved with the project since 2010 and waiting for it since I first heard about it in 2008. In that time, our county organization has visited the State Department offices in Washington DC four times to promote the Keystone XL project. We just thank Senator Daines for leading this effort for Montana and sticking with it the whole time.”
On March 23, Daines met with TransCanada CEO Russ Girling to discuss the Keystone XL pipeline and its benefits for Montana.
On January 24, Daines praised Trump’s action to start moving forward construction of the pipeline.
In Daines’ letter to Trump on December 6, 2016, Daines urged him to take immediate action in starting the process to build the Keystone XL pipeline.
Daines has been facilitating conversations between TransCanada and Montana tribes on the pipeline.
The Keystone XL pipeline is a much-needed lifeline to many rural Montana communities, entering the United States through Phillips County, traveling about 284 miles across eastern Montana to South Dakota.
The Obama administration unconscionably vetoed this project, which would create about 800 jobs in Montana, help keep electricity prices affordable for families, and generate more than $80 million in Montana property taxes, more than $16 million of which would be distributed to Montana’s schools and university system.
On November 6 2015, former President Barack Obama rejected TransCanada’s application to build the job-creating Keystone XL pipeline.
Daines was original cosponsor of S. 1, the bill to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, that was vetoed on February 24, 2015.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Daines co-sponsored the Northern Route Approval Act, bipartisan legislation that also would permit construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.
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