Sen. Tester urges president to use American steel in Keystone Pipeline

On Friday, Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) sent a letter to President Trump asking him to use American products “to the maximum extent possible” in regards to the Keystone XL Pipeline.

“Building the XL Pipeline with American pipe I believe is critically important,” said Tester in a statement.

“I said from the beginning that the pipeline needs to be build with the safest of standards and it needs to be built respecting private property rights,” he said.

A White House spokeswoman said Friday that the “buy American” rules in Trump’s order clearing way for pipelines won’t apply to the high-profile Keystone project according to CNN Money.

“The way that the Executive Order is written is actually … specific to new pipelines or those that are being repaired,” the spokeswoman said.

“Since [Keystone] is already currently under construction … it was hard to go back. Everything moving forward would be all under that executive order,” she said.

But Trump has vowed repeatedly that only steel from American steelmakers could be used on Keystone as well as other U.S. oil pipelines.

The president said so the day he signed the Executive Order, as well as in his address to Congress this week. CNN reported.

TransCanada said Friday half of the pipe will come from the Arkansas plant of India-based steelmaker, Welspun. Another 10 percent will come from a Welspun plant in India, the rest will be imported from Canada and Italy.

“It also, if we are able to use American-built steel in making this pipeline, puts more people to work and creates even more good-paying jobs,” Tester said Friday.

“I think it’s a critically important component of President Trump’s platform, and hopefully he will stick to the fact that this pipeline needs to be build with American steel,” said Tester.

Sen. Tester’s letter in full:

“Dear President Trump:

I write today troubled by reports that you will not require the Keystone XL Pipeline to be build with American steel, even after telling Congress earlier this week that you’ve directed American pipelines to “be made with American steel.” I am a strong supporter of this project and believe it should be built with American products by American workers to the maximum extent possible. I respectfully urge you to clarify that this pipeline will be subject to your recent executive order requiring infrastructure projects to use American steel.

Throughout your campaign, your pledge to make America great again resonated across Montana and rural America because so many of us agree we need to create more jobs and bring manufacturing back to our nation. I support attempts to ensure American consumers and our workforce are treated fairly and given every opportunity to succeed. You can send a strong message reaffirming this position by ensuring that the Keystone XL Pipeline uses American steel to the maximum extent possible.

I stand ready to work with you and all of my colleagues, whether they are Republicans, Democrats or Independents, to support hardworking Americans and strengthen our economy.

Sincerely,

Jon Tester.”

http://www.ktvq.com/story/34663127/sen-tester-urges-president-to-use-american-steel-in-keystone-pipeline