Not one to shy away from a challenge, US President Donald Trump has signed executive orders to accelerate two controversial pipeline projects.<br /><br /> He also decreed that lines built in the US must be made of American steel.<br /><br /> Objections<br /><br /> There have been numerous objections to the Dakota and Keystone XL pipelines. <br /><br /> The latter was rejected by former President Barack Obama’s administration in 2015 amid environmental concerns. He said the project would not have lowered petrol prices, created long-term jobs or affected energy dependence.<br /><br /> In December, 2016, the US Army failed to approve the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline.<br /><br /> Supported by Trump, it has been at the centre of months of protests by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in North Dakota.<br /><br /> The Native Americans said a part of the line designed to run under a reservoir on the Missouri River could contaminate drinking water and run over sacred burial sites.<br /><br /> Bogus claims?<br /><br /> Trump claims the pipelines “will put a lot of steelworkers back to work.”<br /><br /> Critics disagree.<br /><br /> Greenpeace Executive Director Annie Leonard called the claim “bogus.”<br /><br /> “Instead of pushing bogus claims about the potential of pipelines to create jobs, Trump should focus his efforts on the clean energy sector, where America’s future lives,” she said.<br /><br /> “Renewable energy is not only the future, but also the only just economy for today,” she added.<br /><br /> “Keystone, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and fossil fuel infrastructure projects like them will only make billionaires richer and make the rest of us suffer.<br /><br /> “We will resist this with all our power and we will continue to build the future the world wants to see.”<br />
