Pipelines Are Needed, but the Obama Administration Continues to Stand in the Way

Oil and natural gas pipelines are the safest means of transporting oil and natural gas from their production sites to their many consumers across the country. According to the Energy Information Administration, oil and natural gas supply two-thirds of today's energy needs and are expected to supply the same amount by 2040. Yet, the Obama Administration is halting progress on the infrastructure needed to ship them. First, President Obama denied the Keystone XL pipeline to be constructed causing the developer, TransCanada, to file a law suit of $15 billion for damages under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).¹ And, just last Friday, Obama's Departments of Justice and Interior along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shut down construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline that would move oil from the Bakken basin to Illinois despite the pipeline having all of its permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and despite the court ruling in the pipeline's favor regarding a suit from an Indian tribe to halt construction.