Mar 1, 2017
Trump’s 'American steel' pipeline proclamation may run counter to energy advisor’s comments
After highlighting his support for the Dakota Access pipeline and TransCanada’s Keystone XL project during his joint address to Congress on Tuesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump received a round of applause for discussing the need for any new pipelines to be made with U.S. steel. “I’ve issued a new directive…that new American pipelines be made with American steel,” he told the assembled group of lawmakers.
Trump’s comments were similar to the message he delivered at the GOP winter retreat in Philadelphia on January 26. “I say let’s put that little clause in like it’s a one-sentence clause,” Trump told Republicans at the time. “But that clause is going to attract a lot of people and we’re gonna make that pipe right here in America, okay?”
But Trump’s public statements run counter to the message being delivered by one of the president’s advisors on energy policy.
“Donald Trump is a reasonable guy and he’s not going to make [TransCanada], I wouldn’t think, manufacture a whole bunch of new pipe when there’s already a bunch laying on the ground,” Republican Congressman Kevin Cramer told BNN in a television interview on Feb.17. Cramer, who advises Trump on energy policy, is also co-chair of the House of Representatives’ Northern Border Caucus and recently joined the Canada-United States Interparliamentary Group.
“The president has a good understanding of the fact that this is a project that should have been built a long time ago. The steel has already been fabricated and the pipes are already in the staging areas,” Cramer noted in his BNN interview. “I’ve described to the president that the good news is that half of the Keystone XL pipeline pipe is U.S. steel and another half is Canadian steel. It already meets much of the criteria or at least spirit of the president’s goal in having more American-made products.”
During his address, the president did not revisit past comments about wanting a “piece of the profits” from the Keystone XL pipeline. “For the government to ask for a percent of profit violates our capitalist system and the government’s role in that system,” Cramer told BNN.
The president also referenced the new, Canada-United States Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders, which was unveiled during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent White House visit. During that visit, the two leaders expressed their commitment to moving forward on energy infrastructure projects, such as Keystone XL.
In January, TransCanada submitted a new presidential permit application to the U.S. Department of State for approval of Keystone XL after Trump signed an executive order to fast track the project.
