John Boehner Admits That Keystone XL Won’t Create 100,000 Jobs

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Last updated on April 7th, 2012 at 11:54 pm

The pressure may be getting to John Boehner, as the Speaker made a subtle change to his story today that served as an admission that Keystone XL won’t create 100,000 jobs.

Here is the (apparently partial) video from ABC’s This Week:

During the interview Boehner was also asked about Keystone XL. According to ABC News, he said, “Now that the president has decided for political reasons that we’re not going to move ahead just yet, not until after the election… we’re going to have to find another way to lean on the Senate, to take this issue up, because the Keystone pipeline will create … over 100,000 indirect jobs.”

This is not the same thing that John Boehner said eleven days ago before the president announced he was not going to approve the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, “This is not good for our country,” he continued. “The president wants to put this off until it’s convenient for him to make a decision. That means after the next election. The fact is the American people are asking the question right now: Where are the jobs? The president’s got an opportunity to create 100,000 new jobs almost immediately. The president should say yes.”

One week ago on Fox News Sunday, Boehner started to sing a slightly different song, “The Keystone pipeline is the prime example of a shovel-ready project that’s been through every approval process here in Washington. Every option is on the table. We’re going to do everything we can to try to make sure that this Keystone pipeline is, in fact, approved. It’s 20,000 direct jobs. It’s over 100,000 indirect jobs. And as more energy independence for America as opposed to forcing our friends across the border in Canada to run a pipeline out to the Pacific Ocean and sell it to the Chinese.”

In politics, the addition or subtraction of one word can change everything. As soon as John Boehner changed his wording from Keystone XL creating 100,000 jobs to the project creating 100,000 indirect jobs, this was a subtle admission that his earlier claims were false. Unfortunately for the American people, his 100,000 indirect jobs claim is also not true.

In less than two weeks, Boehner’s gone from claiming 100,000 direct jobs will be created immediately if the pipeline is approved to the pipeline creating 20,000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs to only 100,000 indirect jobs. There is a huge difference between direct jobs and indirect jobs. Direct jobs are those that specifically come from a project. Indirect jobs are the estimated economic impact of a project. Those jobs are guesses as what a project might do to bolster an entire economy.

A study by Cornell University found that Boehner and all the supporters of Keystone XL are not being truthful about the direct and indirect jobs that the project would create, “XL. However, the “118,000 indirect jobs” claim is based on a study conducted by The Perryman Group on the employment and broader economic impacts of the project. These numbers (20,000 and 118,000) have often been cited together in statements and press releases in order to gain support for the project. The Perryman study offers no figure for the direct jobs that might be created by Keystone XL, but it does claim that the project will generate “118,935 person-years” of employment. A “person year” of employment is not equivalent to an individual job in the real world, despite the obvious inference that it is.”

Cornell also found that the data used to estimate the indirect jobs is stretched out over 100 years, “The Perryman report uses an unusually long time frame—100 years—to make the employment and economic impacts of the project look more impressive. Perryman combines the results over all years of construction and operation for 100 years.”

Speaker Boehner keeps changing his story on the number of jobs created, because his estimates aren’t true. The reality is that according to the State Department, Keystone XL will only create 6,000 direct jobs with only 10%-15% of those workers being hired locally.

As PoliticusUSA has been reporting, Boehner is pushing the project so aggressively because he is personally invested in the oil companies that will benefit from the pipeline. As the American people have begun to call for the corrupt Speaker to step down or resign, Boehner has started to sing a different song on the number of jobs that the pipeline will create.

With the SEC considering an investigation of him, John Boehner has no choice but to add a different note to his Keystone XL jobs claims, but he is still lying to the American people for his own financial benefit.

Let Rep. Boehner know that you have had enough of his lies, by signing the petition calling on him to either step down or face expulsion from the House. His story on Keystone XL is falling apart, and now it is time for the Speaker to go.