By Matthew Mancini (’18)

On Tuesday, January 24, President Trump signed an executive order that will continue the construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines. These two projects had been halted by President Obama, but Trump promised to continue construction once he took office during his campaign.

The construction of the two pipelines was denied by the Obama administration as they were harmful to the environment and built on the land of the Standing Rock Sioux, a Native American tribe.  

In the executive order issued by Trump, the pipelines will be made with U.S. materials, as well as centralizing the regulatory process and shortening the environmental review process.

Trump’s main focus behind the continuation of the projects is to increase American jobs, stating that “We’re going to put a lot of … steel workers back to work”.