Three GOP members of the Wisconsin House delegation gathered at a pipeline company in Racine County Friday to criticize President Joe Biden for cancelling a major oil pipeline known as Keystone XL.
US Reps. Bryan Steil, of Janesville, Scott Fitzgerald of Waupun and Glen Grothman of Glenbeulah say the executive order Biden issued after taking office Wednesday has caused hundreds of Wisconsin residents working on the pipeline in the Great Plains states to be laid off.
The three Republicans met with the news media in a parking lot outside the Franksville office of the Michels Corporation, which is a subcontractor on the pipeline being built from Canada to Nebraska.
Grothman said, "It's kind of a rocky first week here, for the Biden Administration."
Fitzgerald called Michels, which is headquartered near Fond du Lac, "a great American company that literally just got the rug pulled out from underneath them."
Steil was asked about comments from some members of Congress who are talking about introducing legislation to try to reverse Biden's order. Steil replied, "those conversations are just beginning. I'm going to do everything I can to overturn this decision."
At a news briefing Thursday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about job losses for pipeline workers. She replied:
"The message of the President and the White House would be that he is committed. His record will show — shows the American people that he's committed to clean-energy jobs — to jobs that are not only good, high-paying jobs, union jobs, but ones that are also good for our environment. He thinks it's possible to do both.”
