The pipeline only creates a total of 15 permanent jobs in North Dakota.
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President Trump is expected to sign two executive actions that would advance construction on the Dakota Access pipelines.
In New York, activists are planning to hold a protest in Columbus Circle starting at 6 p.m. tonight that will rally against Trump’s executive order.
The Keystone XL would run from Canada to Steele City in Nebraska, where it will meet up with an existing pipeline network connected to USA refineries on the Gulf Coast.
With a pair of executive orders, the president reversed the Obama administration’s decisions on both the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.
“We’re expediting environmental reviews and approvals”, he said.
The Army decided a year ago to explore alternate routes for the Dakota pipeline after the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and its supporters said the pipeline threatened drinking water and Native American cultural sites.
The president also selected Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state, and his nominee for Interior Secretary, Rep. Ryan Zinke, has voiced his support for the Keystone XL pipeline.
“From now we are going to start making pipelines in the United States”, Trump said from the Oval Office on Tuesday.
“Stopping these projects will require action at home, in the halls of power, and in the path of each pipeline.” the Facebook invite reads.
The Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines will get a second shot under the Trump administration.
“We will build our own pipeline, we will build our own pipes, like we used to, in the old days”, Trump said, as he signed the orders, noting that it will be done with USA steel and labor.
“This is about streamlining the incredibly cumbersome, long, terrible permitting process and reducing regulatory burdens for domestic manufacturing”, Trump explained, as he signed two more executive orders, mandating the use of American-manufactured pipes and expediting environmental reviews and approvals for “critical infrastructure”.
Though he did not say exactly how Trump would handle the projects, his response outlined Trump’s interest in using domestic natural resources as an economic driver.
“President Trump is legally required to honor our treaty rights and provide a fair and reasonable pipeline process”, said Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
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Barack Obama blocked construction of a disputed segment of the pipeline in December in one of his last acts as President.
