Gov. Kristi Noem Reveals Why Cancellation Of Keystone Pipeline Was ‘Devastating For South Dakota’

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) spoke out on Tuesday to talk about how devastating the decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline has been for her state.

Noem Talks Keystone XL Pipeline

Noem said that Biden’s decision to cancel the pipeline entirely was “wrong” and “devastating” for the people of South Dakota because of the amount of jobs that it cost them.

“We talked about this before the November election that the policies that Biden was embracing were going to impact everyday families,” Noem told Fox News.

“When he canceled the Keystone pipeline, it was devastating for South Dakota,” she added of Biden. “We lost jobs immediately. We had families that had invested in expanding their hotels, their restaurants, their gas stations getting ready for the build-out.”

‘We had pumping stations that were already built,” Noem said. “And we needed the lower energy prices and the stability and safety that the pipeline was going to provide. So, it was the wrong policy to cancel the pipeline. Wrong for people, wrong for safety and wrong for the environment.”

Noem Sounds Off

This comes days after Noem sounded off about the cancellation of the pipeline in a previous interview.

“The pipeline was being built through the state of South Dakota. In fact, they had already built a couple of pumping stations, they had the pipeline laid out ready to be installed, and then when he pulled the permits, everything just stopped,” she explained.

“There are so many families that have told their stories in recent days about the devastation to them and their incomes and businesses,” Noem added. “We had restaurants and motels, gas stations that had expanded, getting ready for the workers that were going to be there [for] the next several years building the pipeline.”

“They were excited about the opportunities to get the property taxes in these local small schools from the pipeline,” she said. “It was always going to be a source of revenue that would help them keep their roads fixed and commerce going and make sure that their teachers could be well-paid. In a lot of these remote areas … that is a little challenging.”

“Overnight, their whole plan for the future was just gone. And I think for a lot of families in the state of South Dakota, it was devastating,” Noem concluded.

This piece was written by James Samson on February 24, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.