President Obama nixed the Keystone and Dakota pipelines, arguing that allowing them would undercut American leadership in weaning from carbon-based energy.
On January 17th, President Trump signed executive orders to move the pipeline projects forward, boasting about creating tens of thousands jobs and that only U.S.-made steel and steel pipe would be used.
Trump's "buy only-American-steel" declaration could actually doom the Keystone project before it begins.
About 40-50 percent of the Keystone pipe is already made, mostly from foreign steel. About 230 miles of it has been stockpiled along the North Dakota portion of its route since 2011.
Little known is that a large part of the steel used in the pipe is from Evraz, a Russian company that has plants in the U.S. and is owned by Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch, close ally of Vladimir Putin, and a Trump family friend.