Trump Administration Grants Pipeline Permits Without All His Promised Conditions

President Trump vowed to win a "better deal" for Americans before approving the Keystone XL and the Dakota Access oil pipelines, promising to extract concessions and force the builders to use U.S. steel. Now his administration has authorized both projects -- with those conditions mostly unmet. The outcomes illustrate the limits of the president’s power and poke holes in the carefully crafted image of Trump as a dealmaker so good at twisting arms that he wrote a book about his negotiating prowess. “Donald Trump’s promises on these pipelines are like the pipelines themselves: hollow," said Senator Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts. "The only promises being kept with approval of these pipelines will be the ones made to Big Oil who want to export this dirty oil to thirsty foreign markets at the expense of our environment and our economy."