The 1179 mile large diameter pipe would carry 800,00 per day south to refiners in the Gulf Coast region. Exploiters have typically emphasized the minuscule economic benefit in the form of jobs, while turning a blind eye to the environmental damage the additional burning of fossil fuel will cause. The legal problem for the regime is a detailed, fact-based explanation, in light of contrary findings by the previous administration, for reversal of the previous policy denying State Department permission for the international pipe's construction. Two days after he took office, Mr. Yuge issued a fiat reversing Obama's decsion against the project, elevating the project to a political cause celebre, a symbol of 'Making America Great Again (MAGA). What his decision making on the project does is isolate the United States from the international community of nations who have signed the Paris Climate Accords, and indeed reject mainstream scientific thinking on climate change. The Trump regime has sought the reversal of 76 rules related to protecting the environment.
Experts think that the impact of the pipeline on the nation's economy is out of proportion to the political upheaval created over its permiting. The pipeline will primarily benefit Canada's oil shale operators by giving them an outlet to coastal refineries for their land-product. Their product is low-grade crude which requires huge amounts of water and fuel to process. The State Department estimated that 42,000 temporary jobs for two years — about 3,900 of them in construction and the rest through indirect support, like food service — but only 35 permanent jobs would be created.