For Republicans, Pipes Are Infrastructure Only If They Carry Oil

In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity last week, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R) expressed outrage that President Joe Biden’s $ 2 trillion infrastructure package meant a significant investment in housing and plumbing requires – literal infrastructure.

“I was shocked at how much is not going into the infrastructure,” she said. “It’s about research and development, it’s about housing and pipes and various initiatives, green energy, and it’s not really an honest conversation we’re having about this proposal.”

“I’m frustrated,” she added.

Apparently, Noem’s definition of energy infrastructure begins and ends with fossil fuels.

In 2017, Noem signed a letter in which she and more than 80 other Republican members of Congress urged then Attorney General Jeff Sessions to protect oil and gas pipelines from protesters. “Maintaining a safe and reliable energy infrastructure is a national security issue,” they wrote.


Joe Raedle via Getty Images

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. (Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty Images)

The letter reveals the real problem Noem and other Republicans have with Biden’s infrastructure plan: it prioritizes pipes that carry water instead of fossil fuels, and sources of energy other than oil and gas.

A detailed White House fact sheet on the government’s plan makes no mention of fossil fuel pipelines. However, it does contain detailed sections on replacing lead pipes across the country to ensure access to safe drinking water, as well as plugging abandoned oil and gas wells. Compare that to former President Donald Trump’s failed infrastructure plan, which included an entire section on accelerating oil and gas pipeline projects.

A spokesman for Noem, who was asked for comment, referred HuffPost to the governor’s post on Twitter.

Biden’s “infrastructure” bill spends more on electric cars than it does on roads or bridges.

Amtrak will receive $ 80 billion to build railroads in all states except Alaska, Hawaii, and South Dakota.

And it removes the protection of the right to work, which has been shown to boost the economy.

– Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) April 1, 2021

Noem’s criticism is part of an emerging GOP talking point. Their main line of attack is that Biden’s plan does not target what they have termed “real” or “traditional” infrastructure.

“You look at this bill, the $ 2 trillion in the bill that only about 5 to 7 percent of that is roads and bridges and ports and things that you and I would say are real infrastructure that we tried to come under the bill of last administration with President Trump, “Russell Vought, the former director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump, told Fox News Radio last week.

The Washington Post checked Vought’s claim and found it was largely false, and gave her three of our four Pinocchios. “Rail is transport. Water pipes are infrastructure. Two plus two is four, ”wrote the publication.

The American employment plan, which Biden unveiled in a speech in Pittsburgh last week, includes $ 621 billion to rebuild crumbling roads, highways, bridges and waterways, as well as massive federal investments in clean energy to curb the planet’s fuel gas emissions.

GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Ky., Has called the proposal a “Trojan Horse”. And in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) Urged Biden to cut the price from $ 2.25 trillion to $ 615 billion. Blunt claimed that only 30% of investments are in infrastructure, “even if you broaden the definition.”

Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other administrative officials have defended the package against GOP attacks.

“Railways weren’t part of the infrastructure until we built them,” Buttigieg told Fox News on Sunday. “Now is the time to prepare for the future and the millions of jobs this bill will create are due to this bill looking to the future.”

And in a separate Sunday interview with ABC, Buttigieg went back to Noem’s claims about whistling.

“Let’s be clear, there is a lot more than roads and bridges that are part of the infrastructure,” he said. “I recently heard the governor of South Dakota say, ‘This is not infrastructure – it has money for pipes.’ We believe pipes are an infrastructure because you need water to live and too many families are now at risk of lead poisoning. “

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