Donald Trump Appears Confused About the Dakota Access Pipeline
It seemed like we were done with articles on the Dakota Access Pipeline but there's something important that should be brought up.
Whether you're for or against the pipeline, I feel that it is important that the President of the United States should know more about it.
Donald Trump is currently in France and the plane ride there was a long one. It gave the opportunity for Trump to talk to journalists traveling with him.
The pool reporter for this particular trip was a reporter for the New York Times. Reporters were under the impression that the conversations taking place were off the record. However, then things changed. From The Times:
The conversation was initially thought by the journalists to be off the record. However, the White House changed the terms of the exchange after Mr. Trump asked the pool reporter, who works for The New York Times, why it was not covered and she informed him that the journalists believed they were not allowed to use the material.
The result was the New York Times publishing excerpts from the exchange. They discussed Russia, trade, Donald Trump Jr.'s recently released e-mails and energy among other topics.
Buried towards the bottom of the article, as part of the conversation about energy, Trump had this to say:
The first thing I signed, the first day, was the Keystone Pipeline. That first * was the Keystone and the Dakota Access Pipeline — also Dakota Access. Now, what does that mean? Dakota Access takes it to the Pacific. Who do they compete with? Russia. Hillary would have never signed — that was with the reservation — she would have never signed it.
Certainly any oil exported from the US could compete with Russia or any other country. However, the Dakota Access Pipeline does not at all take oil to the Pacific.
The route runs from the Bakken of North Dakota to Pakota, Illinois. From Pakota, according to Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Pipeline, the oil is then taken to Nederland, a town in Eastern Texas.
A fact sheet published by Energy Transfer Partners states:
It will transport approximately 470,000 barrels per day with a capacity as high as 570,000 barrels per day or more - which could represent approximately half of Bakken current daily crude oil production. Shippers will be able to access multiple markets, including Midwest and East Coast markets as well as the Gulf Coast via Nederland, Texas crude oil terminal facility of Sunoco Logistics Partners.
It mentions the Midwest and East Coast but nothing about the Pacific.
We have reached out to a White House spokesperson referred to us by the White House Press Office for further clarification. We will update this post as soon as we receive a response.
For now, it would appear that Donald Trump isn't fully aware to where the Dakota Access Pipeline carries oil.
**Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article pointed out that we reached out to the White House Press Office but did not receive a response. Since then, the White House has given the name and e-mail address of the appropriate contact and we have reached out to that individual.
[NY Times]