The Biden Presidency Act I: A closer look into the President’s first executive orders
Opinion Policy Analysis by Johnny Achkar, Contributor
February 9th, 2021
President Biden inherited a highly divided country. He will face an uphill battle, as both parties will undoubtedly harass him on various issues. Biden announced a longer series of Day 1 executive orders, 17 in total, than any recent modern president has before. This involved the implementation of a nationwide federal land mask mandate, the termination of the Keystone XL oil pipeline permit, and the reversal of an immigration ban from some predominantly Muslim countries. He went on to state, “There’s no time to wait. We have to act and we have to act now.”
Biden is directing executive departments to tasks including but not limited to studying 103 Trump-era environmental and public health decisions. Biden calls for bipartisanship regularly, but it requires his leadership; before the policies form, he would have to consult with Republican politicians to identify points of consensus. However, President Biden, who campaigned as a centrist and released a call for national unity on Wednesday, is still under criticism from his party's liberal wing to take several decisions on various topics. For instance, climate change was attributed to two of Biden's executive orders: the first readmits the U.S. to the Paris Climate Agreement while the other reverses the opposition to environmental protections of former President Donald Trump.
Mr. Biden rescinding the construction permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline has proven to be a particularly controversial issue. Almost 1.5 million Americans are employed by the oil and gas industry, with an additional 185,000 coal workers. The expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline, proposed by oil engineering firm TC Energy in 2008, was planned to deliver the dirtiest fossil fuel on the earth to the market. The extension of the current Keystone Pipeline System, which has been in service since 2010, will significantly expand the refining ability of the 168 billion barrels of crude oil trapped beneath the boreal forests of Canada. A sludgy, oily deposit called tar sands is found underneath the wilds of northern Alberta's boreal forest. These sands contain bitumen, which can be converted into crude, a gooey form of petroleum. The extraction of oil from tar sands is not a small feat, and this entails steep environmental and economic costs. However, after President Biden suspended licenses for the Keystone pipeline project and ordered a "pause" on new oil and gas leases on federal property, his demands for unity and cooperation were met with some pushback by Republican lawmakers who accused President Biden of making “far-left moves”. The pipeline controversy is both nuanced and fierce, as it crosses party lines, with a plenty of sparring about the project's future environmental and economic impacts.
Supporters of the proposal point out two key advantages for Americans. Firstly, it would boost the energy stability of America, so it would put in more oil from favorable Canada and reduce the reliance of the nation on unpredictable countries in South America and the Middle East. Secondly, the pipeline will produce well-paying construction work and provide the American economy with a larger boost. With Biden killing the venture, the company now reports that about 1,000 people will be laid off. The scheme will have hired several thousand U.S. employees at the height of production, but this employment opportunity will no longer materialize. Republican lawmakers from several states have protested this decision. For example, Republican Wisconsin congressional representatives are calling on President Joe Biden to rethink his executive order revoking the Keystone XL pipeline licenses, arguing that the move cost Wisconsin workers jobs. Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil even stated, “[Biden] killed hundreds of Wisconsin jobs.” Several Canadian politicians have also voiced their concern. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney opposed the decision to block the US$8 billion cross-border energy initiative by newly inaugurated President Joe Biden. Kenney accused the President of displaying ‘disrespect for America’s closest friend and ally.’
On the other hand, a broad coalition of Democratic lawmakers, Native American tribes, and environmentalists cheered this decision. TC Energy's initial Keystone Pipeline System has spilled more than a dozen times since it first went into service in 2010. Most recently, following a leak in North Dakota of potentially over 378,000 gallons, the Keystone tar sands pipeline was partially shut down on October 31, 2019. In addition, it is harder to clean up than standard crude when tar sands oil leaks, so it quickly sinks to the bottom of the waterway. Keystone XL will cross-regions that are important for agriculture and vulnerable to the climate, including hundreds of rivers, lakes, aquifers and bodies of water. One is Nebraska's Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies millions of people with drinking water and provides 30 percent of the irrigation water in America. A spill will be devastating for the farms, ranches, and ecosystems that depend on these vital environments. The pipeline directly endangers hundreds of indigenous communities’ members. The Indigenous Environmental Network's Dallas Goldtooth notes, “I think that a lot of tribes are really frustrated at the lack of inclusion in this process that's guaranteed through our treaty rights.”
Environmentalists also object not only to the pipeline itself, but also to the beginning-to-finish process of tar sands refining, which, like global warming, has a major environmental influence. Biden’s Transportation Secretary Nominee, Pete Buttigieg has defended the president’s decision. Questioned about this at his senate hearing by Senator Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, Buttigieg was confident that jobs would be created, as the new administration’s moves towards climate-conscious objectives would compensate for these setbacks. "I believe that the president's climate vision will create more jobs on that," said the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He later added, ‘‘And I think it's going to be very important to work with him and work with Congress to make sure that we can deliver on that promise too. That on that, more good-paying union jobs will be created in the context of the climate and infrastructure work that we have before us than has been impacted by other decisions.”
Last Thursday, the Biden administration declared the termination of new oil and gas leasing and drilling licenses for U.S. lands and waters, lasting for 60 days, as officials worked swiftly to undo the energy and climate policies of the Trump administration. Almost 26 million acres of federal land were rented to oil and gas producers in the United States as of 2017. It continues the campaign promise of President Biden to prohibit new exploration on federal lands and end the leasing of publicly held sources of oil to help combat climate change. The change by President Biden may be the first step towards an eventual target of banning all leases and licenses to drill on federal property.
The announcement by the administration attracted a swift backlash from Republicans and trade organizations in the oil industry. Limiting access to publicly held energy supplies would entail more imports of foreign oil, employment shortages, and reduced tax collections, individuals added. Wyoming Senator John Barrasso said the administration was "off to a divisive and disastrous start." New Mexico's oil and gas officials are also voicing questions about the latest executive order by President Joe Biden. The industry accounts for almost one-third of the general state fund sales in New Mexico, and industry officials said even a partial halt to leasing would harm the state. “It has two issues for the oil and gas industry: number one is that there's a huge economic impact for oil and gas producers in New Mexico. When the oil and gas industry suffers, that will have a huge ripple effect to impact New Mexico.” said Ryan Flynn, CEO of the New Mexico Oil & Gas Association. “Impeding American energy will only serve to hurt local communities and hamper America’s economic recovery,” Mike Sommers, President of the American Petroleum Institute, said in a tweet. Western Energy Alliance, which claims to serve 200 oil and natural gas businesses, said the suspension of leases by the administration is ‘unsupported and needless’, and an overreach by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, according to a petition brought in federal court in Wyoming on Wednesday.
Environmentalists and Democratic lawmakers are concerned with effect that oil drilling is having on the environment. The equivalent of almost 550 million tons of greenhouse gases annually is produced by extracting and burning those fuels. A danger to habitats is the exploitation of oil and gas. The contact, breeding and spawning of avian species can be disturbed by noisy sounds, human activity and vehicle traffic from drilling operations. It can even get in the way of the utilities designed for energy production, for several animals, power lines, walls, and roads fragment ecosystems. Poisonous emissions are produced by power plants and manufacturing facilities. It may cause breathing disorders such as asthma, lung conditions, developmental problems and even cancer to breathe this air. Major oil leaks, however, are provento kill animals. Although the oil and gas industry is planning for a fight, environmental activists continue to urge Biden to uphold his pledge to end mining and permitting on federal property. Activists were delighted with the swift climate action taken by President Biden. Vice President Tracy Stone-Manning of the National Wildlife Federation supported the change by saying, “The Biden administration has made a commitment to driving down carbon emissions. It makes sense starting with the land that we all own.”
President Biden will face severe hurdles in order to achieve unity between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans will criticize many of Biden’s actions and anything on his platform. Firstly, on the issues of jobs, climate change, and the environment, Democrats and Republicans have strong but different opinions. Secondly, it could be better electorally for Republicans to resist whatever Biden recommends, aim to push up his disapproval ratings, and use him as a proxy in the midterms, even on topics where the parties in principle could resolve their policy disagreements. It remains to be seen how Biden will be able to balance between the demands of two opposite political parties and achieve unity.