A pipeliner’s perspective on the shutdown of the Keystone XL

Career pipeline welder turned CWI Keith Armentrout offers his take on the shutdown of the Keystone XL. Getty Images

In one of his first acts as president of the United States, Joe Biden signed an executive order that, among other things, revoked the permit of the Keystone XL pipeline, thus halting the project.

It’s one thing to focus on the jobs lost as a result of the project’s shutdown or the potential climate-conscious jobs that will be created, but it’s another to focus on the people affected by this.

Keith Armentrout is one of those people. The career pipeline welder turned CWI was the subject of the article, “The truth about pipeline welding,” which ran last in March 2020.

In that article, he shared the fact that he knew he was meant to be a welder the moment he struck his first arc when he was 12 years old. Many years later he was disappointed when he had to step away from welding for health reasons. But he took the news in stride and switched gears, becoming a CWI for the pipeline industry.

Though the Keystone XL pipeline project’s cancellation didn’t affect him directly, the executive order included other directives that affect oil and gas as a whole. And now, once again, he’s left wondering when he’ll need to switch gears and what that’s going to look like.

“I would say that across the board there’s a sense of fear. Fear for how we are going to be making a living, feeding our families, and paying our bills. My friends who were directly affected by this are at a loss for what to do and where to go next,” Armentrout said.

So when new Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that the president’s climate policy would create more union jobs than it erased—they would just be different jobs—I’m sure you can imagine that didn’t provide much comfort to career oil and gas workers, including Armentrout.

You see, he has spent more than 30 years in this industry. Armentrout and many other pipeline welders and CWIs spend more time with co-workers than they do with their own families. The payoff is the ability to support their families financially and provide them with a comfortable life.

It’s not just a career, it’s a lifestyle—and a difficult one at that. They must perfect the art of working fast while under pressure to produce quality welds that are scrutinized almost immediately.

“It was an insensitive response and a blatant disregard for individuals who are impacted by this,” Armentrout said of Buttigieg’s comment.

While he’s lived through the changes previous administrations have made throughout the course of his career, he said this is the most drastic measure he’s seen in his 30 years. He’s lost sleep over what this all will mean for him others like him in the years to come.

Armentrout adds that he supports green initiatives and understands why they are necessary. What he is unsure of, however, is how quickly the “old” ways are being cancelled without a real, developed plan for these new initiatives.

“I’m not the only one who feels that green programs and initiatives are good, but I believe the people in charge need to take the time and thought to implement them in a proper manner.”

Time and thought. The men and women who have made a life on the pipelines and who have sacrificed so much to perfect their craft, at the very least, deserve that.