U.S. Chamber of Commerce criticizes Obama administration decision to halt Dakota Access Pipeline

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy recently criticized the Obama administration’s decision to halt work on the Dakota Access Pipeline and drew attention to how U.S. policies are aligning business and labor interests against the administration.
After protests along the pipeline site, the Obama administration stopped the work of three agencies on the project and requested that the company behind the pipeline also halt work. The project had already received all necessary permits.
“Once these processes have been completed, it is fundamentally unfair to hold union members’ livelihoods and their families’ financial security hostage to endless delay,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumpka said. “The Dakota Access Pipeline is providing over 4,500 high-quality, family-supporting jobs.”
The Institute for 21st Century Energy supported Trumpka’s statement and added its own criticism of the Obama administration’s decisions, contending that it is unfair to communities along the project’s route that have advocated for it and for Americans based further from the pipeline but who stand to benefit from energy resources transported along it. The institute also  criticized the general environmental policies of the current administration.