The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a lower court’s ruling that denied efforts to temporarily stop construction on the southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline, which runs from Cushing, Oklahoma to refineries along the Gulf Coast. The Oklahoma portion is nearly complete.
Even though all the pipe in Oklahoma and Texas is buried, environmental groups and activists are still urging the Obama administration to block the northern portion of the pipeline, where it crosses the Canadian border.
TransCanada’s vice president of the Keystone project traveled to Tulsa Thursday to thank members of Pipeliners Union Local 798, which welded together two sections of the pipeline. Union business manager Danny Hendrix said the project employed 350 pipeline workers with $47 million in total wages.
Hendrix said these wages mean that workers can make their “house payment, it means they can send their kid to college.” Hendrix went on to says these are not temporary jobs, these are great jobs, but did say “every construction jobs is temporary.”
Oil will start flowing through the 485-mile Oklahoma-to-Texas portion of the Keystone XL pipeline later this year, whether or not President Obama approves the northern portion.
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