Officials launch Partnership to Fuel America

August 31, 2011

The Dickinson Press

Ashley Martin

BISMARCK — Officials gathered to unveil the Partnership to Fuel America during a press conference at the Expressway Inn in Bismarck on Tuesday morning.

The partnership is a national effort by businesses and industries to address the need for more energy in the U.S., with a major focus being on constructing a Keystone XL pipeline which would pipe oil from Canada and Midwest states to Texas.

“We believe that the development of North American energy, like North Dakota oil and Canadian oil sands clearly help our state and national economy and they also create and preserve thousands of jobs,” said Mike Motschenbacher, president of the North Dakota Hospitality Association, which joined the partnership. “Developing North American energy also curbs our dependence on foreign oil from other countries that may not be as stable or friendly to U.S interests.”

Keystone XL is a $7 billion project that would expand the existing 1,661-mile Keystone Pipeline system, which became operational last year, according to the partnership’s website.

The expansion would allow the Keystone system to pump 1.1 million barrels of oil a day.

Matthew Koch, vice president of oil sands and arctic issues at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for 21st Century Energy, said the construction of the pipeline would create 15,000 to 20,000 construction and manufacturing jobs across the country, including in Dickinson and Bismarck.

“There is anticipated, I think, over the lifetime of the project, an estimated 60,000 regular jobs,” Koch said. “But then beyond that there’s some projections that have gotten into the hundreds of thousands of jobs … as well as the residual benefits to the economy and in other jobs that result.”

Andy Peterson, president of the North Dakota Chamber of Commerce, said the partnership is important to the future economic health of state.

“It benefits our bottom line,” Peterson said.

A final environmental impact study was recently issued for the project, which is one of the last steps before construction, Koch said.

“The next two steps would be the state department has to issue a decision on whether Keystone XL is in the national interest,” Koch said. “Then a presidential permit would be issued by the federal government for the pipeline.”

The permit may be issued by the end of the year, he said.

Two major unions recently spoke against the project. The Transport Workers Union and the Amalgamated Transit Union are concerned it could pollute groundwater and cause health problems near the Texas refineries where the oil will go, according to the Associated Press.

<- Go Back