Texas native Lawrence Jones blasts Biden for canceling Keystone XL pipeline: 'People are suffering right now'

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Biden kills Keystone XL Pipeline construction, cutting jobs and more

Fox News contributor Lawrence Jones tells 'Your World' the poor will be hurt most

President Biden's swift move to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline will have the greatest negative impact on impoverished and working class communities, Fox News contributor Lawrence Jones told "Your World" Monday.

"We're not just talking about jobs [being lost]. We're talking about energy prices going up. The fact is that cheap energy affects Americans as well," Jones told host Gerry Baker. "So you have the job component and the fact that it will cause the poor to have to pay more for energy."

That energy, Jones added, will have to be imported from the Middle East and other countries that do not have the same environmental standards as the United States. 

"There's a moratorium on federal gas and oil leases [in Biden's plan]. That means we'll be importing a lot of that energy from other countries. They don't have the same environmental standards that we have," he said. "So you would say, is this defeating the purpose not only from a fiscal standpoint or a real world standpoint, but also, if you really are against the way the climate is going, why would you start importing from other countries that have worse standards?"

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Jones noted that he hails from Texas, a state that relies heavily on the energy sector for both jobs and revenue. Energy resources are processed en masse at places like Port Arthur, near the Louisiana border, where the original Keystone Pipeline truncates at the Gulf of Mexico.

"Just from a strategic standpoint, do you think it's the best time to do this when businesses are [and] people are still experiencing this pandemic?" Jones asked. "People are suffering right now. You want to go through this right now? This is your first agenda item?"

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Jones concluded by stating that Biden's ongoing governance-by-executive-fiat highlights the importance of a president working well with the legislature.

"Going through Congress should be a priority. These are the people that represent the people. Because he's decided to go around that process, I don't think he realizes the impact that it's going to have on American citizens," he said. "I think when elections come around again [in 2022] ... he will feel it."