{"id":5117,"date":"2021-03-22T15:26:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T15:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/?p=5117"},"modified":"2025-05-09T15:28:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T15:28:01","slug":"president-bidens-self-defeating-environmental-dyad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/2021\/03\/22\/president-bidens-self-defeating-environmental-dyad\/","title":{"rendered":"President Biden\u2019s Self-Defeating Environmental Dyad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(Source<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appeasing\nenvironmentalists and Democrats, President Joe Biden recently signed an executive\norder<\/em><\/a> halting progress on the Keystone XL Pipeline, a\nperennial project to construct an underground pipeline that would distribute 830,000<\/em><\/a>\nbarrels of crude oil every day from Calgary, Canada to the Gulf\nof Mexico<\/em><\/a>. The executive order fulfilled one of President\nBiden\u2019s campaign\npromises<\/em><\/a>, creating a perception of political\nfealty on day one of his presidency. The decision was, however, simultaneously\nmet with criticism by some Republicans<\/em><\/a>,\nwho have suggested that Biden\u2019s inaugural\ncommitment<\/em><\/a> just hours earlier to unify the country,\nwhich is reeling from partisan\ndivision<\/em><\/a>, was fleeting or disingenuous. President\nBiden should reverse course on his mandate to nix<\/em><\/a>\nthe pipeline and on his twin mandate to temporarily prohibit\nthe issuance<\/em><\/a> of new permits for fracking on federal\nlands. This environmental dyad has, thus far, stagnated\nenvironmental progress<\/em><\/a>, destroyed thousands<\/em><\/a>\nof current and future American jobs, and imperiled<\/em><\/a> the\nbipartisanship Biden has sought to court with Republicans.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most self-defeating, even shortsighted, aspect about President Biden\u2019s environmental dyad is its lack of any salutary effect on the environment. His nixing of the pipeline merely swaps one method of oil distribution for a dirtier and lengthier one<\/em><\/a>. That is, the pipeline cancellation results in a shift from transporting oil cleanly<\/em><\/a> <\/em>in underground pipes across shorter distances towards transporting oil filthily through other methods such as tankers, trucks, and trains across expanses of ocean, highway, and railway. As the Obama Administration\u2019s State Department reported, abandoning the pipeline\u2019s completion would raise<\/em><\/a> CO2<\/sub> emissions by forty-two percent. Beyond emitting less carbon dioxide, pipelines are far safer<\/em><\/a> than trains, tankers, and trucks, resulting in fewer oil spills and leaks. Even when pipeline-related spills do occur, they are more easily contained<\/em><\/a> than non-pipeline spills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 President Biden perhaps\nbelieved<\/em><\/a>, quite myopically, that his halting of\nthe pipeline would reduce American consumption of Canadian crude oil and thus\nreinforce his call for more renewable energy. No such trend is occurring. In\nfact, despite the pipeline\u2019s cancellation, the United States is projected<\/em><\/a>\nto import a record amount of Canadian oil in 2021. Far from stymieing\ndistribution of crude oil from Calgary to America, Biden\u2019s nixing of the\npipeline has only encouraged increased use of alternative methods to distribute\noil to the United States. Such methods, including via trucks, tankers, or\ntrains, are \u201cmore energy\nintensive<\/em><\/a>\u201d and more hazardous<\/em><\/a>\nfor the environment than underground pipelines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsheer scope of the project explains why the worst byproduct of its cancellation\nwas the upending of many Americans\u2019 lives. With his signature, President Biden\ndestroyed 11,000<\/em><\/a> <\/em>Americans\u2019 current\nand future jobs, many of them blue-collar\nworkers<\/em><\/a> striving to support their families during\nthe pandemic. Shockingly, among them were 8,000<\/em><\/a> union\nworkers, one of the very constituencies that helped propel<\/em><\/a>\nBiden to electoral victory in November in the swing states of Wisconsin and\nMichigan. Despite recently promising<\/em><\/a>\nto be the \u201cmost pro-union president you\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d he was ready on his very\nfirst day in office to eliminate many of their jobs in order to appease\nenvironmentalists.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

President\nBiden\u2019s environmental dyad violated another of his campaign promises, one that promoted<\/em><\/a>\ndomestic jobs over foreign jobs. His ban on new permits for fracking on federal\nlands restricts oil companies\u2019 very ability to expand fracking in the United\nStates and encourages greater dependence<\/em><\/a>\non oil fracking abroad. Additionally, President Biden\u2019s environmental dyad has\ncontravened the economic objectives of some indigenous groups and Canadians. The\nUte\nIndian Tribe<\/a><\/em> dubbed Mr. Biden\u2019s ban on fracking a \u201cdirect attack\u201d on\nits sovereignty for treating Indigenous land as federal land and for harming its\nnation\u2019s economy. In addition, Indigenous Canadian groups invested \u201cnearly $764<\/em><\/a>\nmillion in the pipeline.\u201d Given such investments and the 1,000<\/em><\/a> <\/em>Canadian\njobs lost due to the pipeline\u2019s halting, it is no surprise that Canadian Prime\nMinister Justin Trudeau is disappointed<\/em><\/a>\nby the pipeline\u2019s cancellation. To be sure, many Canadians and some\nindigenous groups<\/em><\/a> are pleased by the pipeline\u2019s halting,\nbut opposition to it by some indigenous peoples, union workers, and at least\none major foreign ally suggests that blocking the pipeline achieved mixed\nresults for Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President\nBiden\u2019s inaugural speech was praised by the news\nmedia<\/em><\/a> for his outward commitment to democratic norms. But,\nmore than anything else, his speech was a call\nfor unity<\/em><\/a>. \u201c[There is] [m]uch to repair. Much to\nrestore. Much to heal. . . . [T]o restore the soul and to secure the future of\nAmerica . . . requires that most elusive of things in a democracy: Unity. Unity,\u201d\nBiden resolutely repeated<\/em><\/a>.\nFor a devotee of healing after the insurrection<\/em><\/a>\nat the U.S. Capitol and after months of protest<\/em><\/a>\nand unrest, President Joe Biden\u2019s environmental dyad instead reinforced\npartisan discord<\/em><\/a>\nand disunity. He jeopardized\nthe bipartisanship<\/em><\/a> <\/em>he sought with Republicans,\nwho view his executive orders as harmful to free markets and to American energy\nindependence, both of which they prize. Another reason Biden increased partisan\nfriction is that the pipeline was one of Republicans\u2019 previous legislative\npriorities<\/em><\/a>. Indeed, it supported the oil industries\nand economies of several<\/em><\/a>\nRepublican states, and its execution had been underway for over twelve\nyears<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although politicians often undertake actions favored by supporters and disfavored by opponents, most will not typically sacrifice an immense amount of bipartisan goodwill for a policy that hardly advances their agenda. President Biden apparently is not typical. His environmental dyad does not help the environment, yet he sacrificed so much partisan goodwill to achieve it, including his air of unity<\/em><\/a>, the sovereignty<\/em><\/a> of the Ute Indian Tribe, and thousands<\/em><\/a> of American jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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About the Author: Mike Oaks is a JD\/MBA candidate at Cornell for the class of 2022. Before attending Cornell, Mike earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in English Language from Brigham Young University and worked as an operations analyst at Morgan Stanley, account executive at Qualtrics, and congressional intern for House Representative Mia Love. Mike is currently an associate on the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Suggested Citation: Mike Oaks, President Biden\u2019s Self-Defeating Environmental Dyad<\/em>, Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol’y: The Issue Spotter (Mar. 22, 2021), https:\/\/live-journal-of-law-and-public-policy.pantheonsite.io\/president-bidens-self-defeating-environmental-dyad\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Source) Appeasing environmentalists and Democrats, President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order halting progress on the Keystone XL Pipeline, a perennial project to construct an underground pipeline that would distribute 830,000 barrels of crude oil every day from Calgary, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. The executive order fulfilled one of President Biden\u2019s campaign…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5118,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117\/revisions\/5118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}