Dear Attorneys General:

As the chief legal officers of your states, we write to you with serious concerns regarding the Biden Administration's unilateral and rushed decision to revoke the 2019 Presidential Permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. This decision will result in devastating damage to many of your states and local communities. Even those states outside the path of the Keystone XL pipeline—indeed all Americans—will suffer serious, detrimental consequences. 

The real-world costs to your states are devastating. Nationally, this decision will eliminate thousands of well-paying jobs, many of them union jobs. Thousands of displaced workers and their families can’t let go of the prospect of Keystone XL. Aspirations like green jobs don’t put food on the table, or pay the phone bill, or put kids through college.   

The pipeline would run 285 miles through Montana, crossing through six counties. Montana businesses, local governments and utilities have made substantial investments in preparation for the pipeline, which are now rendered lost by Biden’s action. As a result, energy bills for some Montanans’ are likely to increase, and schools and local governments in eastern Montana will lose out on much-needed revenue.  

The Keystone XL pipeline provides the safest means of transporting oil and natural gas over long distances. Not only is this project using and making massive investments in green and renewable energy sources, it’s on target to be carbon-neutral by 2023. And importantly, the pipeline would increase American consumers’ access to alternative low-cost energy sources. This decision should not have been made so hastily. The United States is finally energy independent. Beyond increased production, our energy industry has made major, market-driven advances in cleanly and safely developing and transporting fossil fuels. The Keystone XL project is no exception.  

America needs every possible tool to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis stronger and more secure. As leaders in your state, you have the ability to correct the course of the alarming effects that stopping Keystone XL has on states, local communities, families and workers. 

Please join Montana’s Attorney General Austin Knudsen and a coalition of 14 attorneys general and call on President Joe Biden to reconsider his unilateral revocation of the 2019 Presidential Permit for the Keystone XL pipeline.

Signed,

Keystone XL Project Supporter