Debunking claims Warren Buffett influenced the Keystone XL pipeline decision

A viral meme on Facebook makes several claims regarding the Keystone XL pipeline and implies that billionaire investor Warren Buffett may have unduly influenced the 2013 decision by the Obama administration (and by extension the 2021 decision of the Biden administration) to not permit construction. The gist of the meme is that Buffett makes huge profits by transporting Canadian crude via rail and the Keystone XL pipeline threatened those profits. The meme goes on to say that Buffett’s well-known political contributions to Democratic party candidates bought him the influence to have the pipeline quashed.

After examining each claim made by the meme, I have determined that those points material to making the case against Buffett are mostly false or misleading and that his potential business losses to the Keystone pipeline are overstated or non-existent. The key claim that the Obama/Biden administration blocked the pipeline on his behalf is therefore false as well.

Below I have broken down each claim and provided supporting evidence for my conclusions.

Thank you to Facebook followers Tim for supplying this meme and Jacque for requesting a fact check about the Keystone XL pipeline!

CLAIM 1: BNSF owns all of the rail lines that connect to western Canada

Fact Check Rating: False

BNSF’s primary competitor, Union Pacific, also has connections to western Canada from the United States. UP is also engaged in moving crude oil from Alberta to refineries in the United States.

Sources

https://www.up.com/aboutup/reference/maps/system_map/index.htm

https://www.bnsf.com/ship-with-bnsf/maps-and-shipping-locations/rail-network-maps.page

https://www.opb.org/news/series/oil-trains/tar-sands-crude-oil-moves-through-northwest-in-mile-long-trains-as-spill-planning-lags/ 

https://www.up.com/investors/attachments/presentations/2012/investors-day/whited.pdf 

CLAIM 2: BNSF hauls over 80% of the crude oil from Canada to the midwest and Texas.

Fact Check Rating: False

The vast majority of petroleum exported from Canada to the United States is transported by pipeline. According to the Canadian government, in 2019 3.18 million barrels per day was exported via pipeline, versus only 0.28M via railroad and 0.26M via marine transport.

Sources

https://www.cer-rec.gc.ca/en/data-analysis/energy-commodities/crude-oil-petroleum-products/statistics/crude-oil-summary/crude-oil-annual-export-summary-2019.html 

CLAIM 3: BNSF charges $30/barrel to haul crude oil vs. $10/barrel cost of Keystone XL pipeline, according to State Department estimates.

Fact Check Rating: Mostly True/Mixed

The Canadian tar sands industry says that the cost-per-barrel to transport crude-by-rail is approximately $30, which is not solely the cost charged by BNSF or UP, as there are also costs to transport the oil within Canada as well as fees to cross the border and other costs. In a 2013 report, the US State Department did estimate that the Keystone XL pipeline would cost approximately $10/barrel to transport crude oil to the US.

Sources

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-keystone-railroads/analysis-oil-by-train-may-not-be-substitute-for-keystone-pipeline-idUSBRE93H07I20130418

https://2012-keystonepipeline-xl.state.gov//index.htm 

CLAIM 4: BNSF is owned by Berkshire Hathaway, whose chairman is Warren Buffett.

Fact Check Rating: True

BNSF became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway in 2010. Berkshire Hathaway’s chairman and CEO is Warren Buffett.

Sources

https://www.bnsf.com/about-bnsf/financial-information/ 

https://berkshirehathaway.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkshire_Hathaway 

CLAIM 5: Buffett gives extensively to Democratic party candidates and causes including President Obama.

Fact Check Rating: Mostly True

Warren Buffet is famous for donating large amounts of his personal fortune to various causes and is a signatory of the Giving Pledge, along with other billionaires such as Bill Gates. He is openly a supporter of the Democratic Party and has given relatively large sums to candidates such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. His company, Berkshire Hathaway, however, has made political contributions to Democrats and Republicans alike, which is a common, if controversial, strategy employed by many US corporations.

Sources

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-berkshire-buffett-politics/warren-buffett-says-im-a-democrat-and-would-have-no-trouble-voting-for-bloomberg-idUSKCN20I1QI

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/berkshire-hathaway/summary?id=D000021757

https://www.influencewatch.org/person/warren-buffett/ 

CLAIM 6: Buffett stands to lose $2B per year if the pipeline is constructed.

Fact Check Rating: Likely False

Many mainstream financial experts have examined the potential impact on crude-by-rail profits if the Keystone XL pipeline were to be built or remain unbuilt. The consensus is that key stakeholders in crude-by-rail are unlikely to see significant gains or losses either way because the current share of oil transported by rail is very low even without the additional capacity that would have been provided by the Keystone pipeline. Furthermore, BNSF is reported to transport a relatively small amount of Canadian tar sands oil as a portion of its revenue, and could even have seen an increase in profits following the construction of Keystone due to other products they transport that support tar sands oil production other than the crude itself.

Sources

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-keystone-railroads/analysis-oil-by-train-may-not-be-substitute-for-keystone-pipeline-idUSBRE93H07I20130418

https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/05/29/warren-buffett-doesnt-care-about-keystone-xl.aspx

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mergermarket/2015/11/10/lose-some-win-some-keystone-xl-denial-opens-windows-of-opportunity/?sh=4f5b0a1d508d

Debunking viral meme concerning Joe Biden executive actions

A viral meme has been circulating on Facebook criticizing several early actions of the Biden Administration. Similar to lists of unverified claims that circulated before the election, the meme is designed to avoid scrutiny by overwhelming the reader. I have fact checked each claim and provided verifiable sources in an effort to combat misinformation online. The majority of the claims in this meme are false or misleading.

CLAIM: In less than 72 hours, Joe Biden... killed 70,000+ union jobs

Fact Check Rating: Mostly False

This claim appears to be based on Biden’s executive actions to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and to halt construction on the southern border wall. However, the number of jobs lost is greatly exaggerated. Approximately 1,000 permanent jobs were lost due to the cancellation of the pipeline, according to the Canadian company that was building it. Claims that an additional 10,000 support jobs were lost are not verifiable and at worst only represent temporary losses or losses of potential jobs, not current ones. Likewise, the claims that the halt in border wall construction would cause over 10,000 job losses were based on potential jobs that do not currently exist and are likely exaggerated as well. How the 70,000+ figure was reached is unclear as no source for this claim enumerates sufficient losses to add up to this amount.

Sources:

https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2021/01/22/biden-nuked-thousands-of-union-jobs-on-his-first-day/

https://quibbify.com/biden-kills-up-to-70000-jobs-on-first-day-in-office/ 

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jan/21/facebook-posts/how-bidens-executive-order-halting-keystone-xl-pip/ 

CLAIM: ...Eliminated Women’s Sports

Fact Check Rating: False

This claim appears to refer to an executive order Biden signed on his first day in office which is titled “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation”. Many opinion pieces appearing in right-wing and mainstream conservative publications have claimed that this order will allow athletes to participate in men’s or women’s sports based on their gender identity rather than their biological sex at birth. However, the EO simply reaffirms the administration’s commitment to uphold existing laws that protect individuals against sex and gender discrimination. The specific interpretations of these laws are largely handled by states but also federal agencies and local governments. By clearly reaffirming these laws, Biden is expressing that the executive branch seeks to remove barriers to transgender athletes participating in the sports that correspond to their gender identity, but it does not immediately change any laws or rules.

Sources

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-preventing-and-combating-discrimination-on-basis-of-gender-identity-or-sexual-orientation/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-bidens-first-day-began-the-end-of-girls-sports-11611341066

https://www.heritage.org/gender/commentary/after-inaugural-rhetoric-unity-biden-signs-divisive-transgender-executive-order

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jan/22/transgender-athletes-joe-biden-executive-order

https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-does-bidens-executive-order-allow-transgender-athletes-compete-gender-their-1563790

CLAIM: ...Destroyed Female Rights/Equality

Fact Check Rating: False

This claim appears to be a restatement of the above claim related to transgender athletes and is clearly hyperbolic and lacking any backing, and therefore anything to fact check. Suffice it to say that no President of the United States could destroy over a century of progress toward women’s rights and equality in their first week in office even if that was his intention. According to the campaign website for candidate Joe Biden, his agenda toward women could more accurately be described as the opposite of destroying rights and equality, and it will require more time to determine how his actual presidency lives up to these promises. Furthermore, as a Senator and Vice President, Biden made violence against women a legislative priority.

Sources

https://joebiden.com/womens-agenda/

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/1is2many/about 

CLAIM:...Invaded Syria

Fact Check Rating: False

No international media outside of the middle east have reported that Joe Biden has escalated the US involvement in Syria since taking office. Israeli news organization i24 News reported on January 21st that a Syrian government source claimed a US convoy of 40 trucks and armored vehicles had entered the country, but other sources in Israel have established this to be Syrian propaganda. In the US, this has generated conspiracy theories that Biden is escalating the war, which are thus far entirely unsupported by facts on the ground.

Sources

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/middle-east/1611293792-us-military-convoy-enters-northeast-syria-report

https://www.jpost.com/international/false-claims-in-syria-biden-will-start-war-as-us-presence-there-rejected-656440

CLAIM: ...Left the National Guard to freeze in a parking garage

Fact Check Rating: Mixed

In the days following the Inauguration, national media reported that a number of National Guard troops who had been called to Washington DC to provide security were being forced to rest in a parking garage with insufficient amenities and poor hygiene after being told to vacate the US Capitol building. Upon being made aware of the situation, members of Congress rectified the situation and determined that a single officer of the Capitol Police had ordered the troops into the garage without following the chain of command. President Biden, while not personally responsible for the situation, apologized for the hardship and First Lady Jill Biden visited the troops personally to thank them for their service. I am rating this claim as “mixed” because the situation was real, but it was not Joe Biden or his administration who left the troops in that position.

Sources

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/us/national-guard-parking-garage.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/politics/national-guard-capitol/index.html

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/national-guard-parking-garage/

CLAIM: ...Admitted he doesn’t have a plan to fight COVID

Fact Check Rating: False

It is unclear where this claim originates from as it is categorically false with not even a kernel of truth as is typical of false claims. Joe Biden campaigned on a platform of combatting the coronavirus and immediately began working on solving the crisis before even assuming office. The White House has made public the strategy to combat the virus. Media reported that members of the Biden administration had complained that the Trump team had not left them a coherent vaccine distribution plan, however the Biden plan addresses this failure as well.

Sources

https://www.whitehouse.gov/priorities/covid-19/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/National-Strategy-for-the-COVID-19-Response-and-Pandemic-Preparedness.pdf

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/politics/biden-covid-vaccination-trump/index.html

CLAIM...Broke his own mask mandate EO

Fact Check Rating: False

Snopes investigated this claim and determined that Biden did not violate the terms of his executive order requiring mask-wearing on federal property when he briefly was maskless at the Lincoln Memorial. Oversimplification of the EO’s wording is behind this claim, as the location and reason for Biden’s temporary lack of mask do not violate the actual order.

Sources

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-violate-mask-mandate/

https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-mask-mandate-lincoln-memorial-1563657

CLAIM: ...Ended US Energy Independence

Fact Check Rating: False

This claim is a gross exaggeration and oversimplification of an executive order signed by Biden that places a moratorium on new leases for oil and gas drilling on federal lands. While Bloomberg News reports that energy drilling on federal lands accounts for approximately 10% of domestic production, this EO restricts future (not current) leases and has no effect on the 90% of production done on non-federal lands. Furthermore, the EO is part of a broader Biden administration agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and move the economy to green energy to avoid climate change, a transition that would also result in energy independence due to less reliance on imported and domestically produced fossil fuels.

Sources

https://www.worldoil.com/news/2021/1/21/biden-prepares-to-end-new-oil-and-coal-leases-on-federal-land

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-protecting-public-health-and-environment-and-restoring-science-to-tackle-climate-crisis/

CLAIM: ...Canceled lower cost insulin and epinephrine shots

Fact Check Rating: Misleading

As part of a broad review of health policies enacted by the Trump administration, the Biden administration has placed a temporary freeze on a December 2020 policy that nominally requires clinics to pass all discount savings from insulin and epinephrine shots to patients. However, according to Bloomberg News, “health centers said they already pass on those savings and this rule is merely an administrative burden that paints them as entities that price-gouge patients.” Freezing this rule would appear to have little-to-no impact on the price health care consumers pay for these shots.

Source

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/pharma-and-life-sciences/bidens-hhs-freezes-trump-insulin-epinephrine-rule-until-march 

CLAIM: Re-introduced Critical Race Theory

Fact Check Rating: Misleading

In September 2020, Donald Trump signed an executive order forbidding federal agencies and other entities receiving federal contracts to use racial bias and sensitivity/diversity training, which was largely seen as a move against Critical Race Theory, a common boogeyman of conservative media. Joe Biden signed an executive order which reversed this order, allowing agencies and contract recipients to once again put their employees through this training. I rate this claim as misleading because critical race theory itself has never been promoted by federal agencies but rather has been employed as a wedge issue and used to scapegoat all diversity and sensitivity training as being divisive or radical.

Sources

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/01/20/biden-executive-order-overturns-trump-diversity-training-ban/4236891001/

https://www.federaltimes.com/management/hr/2021/01/21/biden-overrides-trump-orders-on-diversity-training/

CLAIM: ...Rescinded a ban on Chinese involvement in the American power grid

Fact Check Rating: Misleading

As part of a broad freeze on Trump administrative rules and executive actions in order to review and assess their impact, the Biden administration placed a 90-day freeze on Executive Order 13920 which, among other things, banned the use of certain imported electrical infrastructure technology. While this would include technology potentially made in China, the original EO did not specifically target China, nor specific meddling by China in the US power grid, an action that of itself would be viewed as hostile and potentially an act of war. Additionally, experts and politicians disagree on the true seriousness of a threat to infrastructure from Chinese-made technology.

Sources

https://disrn.com/news/biden-reverses-trump-ban-on-chinese-communist-involvement-in-us-power-grid/

https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo/eo-13920.pdf

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/biden-administration-announces-sweeping-slate-administrative-actions

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/17/18264283/huawei-security-threat-experts-china-spying-5g

CLAIM: ...Dissolved the 1776 Commission

Fact Check Rating: True

On day one of his administration, Joe Biden signed an executive order which dissolved the controversial 1776 commission created by the Trump administration. The commission was widely criticized and was seen as an attempt to counter the 1619 Project, a New York Times Pulitzer-prize winning project to teach an accurate version of slavery in US public schools. The dissolution of the 1776 Commission is widely seen as an effort to combat revisionist history propaganda in US public school curricula.

Sources

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/20/politics/biden-rescind-1776-commission-executive-order/index.html

https://apnews.com/article/biden-revoke-trump-patriotic-education-259b9302ab24bac55fa14676a1a9d11e

CLAIM: ...Stopped the deportation of illegal aliens

Fact Check Rating: Misleading

The Department of Homeland security announced that it was enacting a 100-day pause on the deportation of some undocumented immigrants from the United States in order to review Trump administration policies, as is happening across the entire federal government at the beginning of the Biden administration. Deportations are not stopped permanently and are expected to continue in accordance with US law following the pause.

Sources

https://www.npr.org/sections/president-biden-takes-office/2021/01/21/959074750/biden-suspends-deportations-stops-remain-in-mexico-policy

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/20/biden-remain-in-mexico-immigration/ 

Debunking claimed accomplishments of the Trump Administration

In the summer of 2020, a list of supposed accomplishments of the Trump administration's nearly four years in power was circulating on social media. The original list had been modified by probably many different people and had become enormously long.

While appearing at first glance to be largely inaccurate, many people were too overwhelmed by the sheer size of the list to bother challenging it when encountering the list on Facebook. I spent about three days fact checking each claim in the list, which was the genesis of the Fact Check Librarian project.

As the administration of Donald Trump comes to a close in a few short weeks, it is worth reflecting on this list of approximately 80 "accomplishments", most of which are either patently false, exaggerated, or misattributed to Trump. In four years in power, two of which included complete control of all three branches of government, very little was accomplished that can truly be credited to this presidential administration.

The full, fact checked, cited list can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q6BzPc-OIp_nJTU1FJUjhTnsGqTOxksd/view

Article claiming a prominent Canadian doctor declared Covid a hoax is misleading

Claim: A man named Dr. Rodger Hodkinson, claiming to be chairman of the Royal College of Physicians in Canada and a biotech executive, said Covid-19 is a hoax, is just a flu, and that masks are useless, among other things.

Rating: ***Misleading***

This claim has been investigated by a number of fact checking organizations including the Associated Press and Snopes, all of which have both debunked the claims made by Hodkinson and also his supposed credentials. 

All legitimate medical organizations and professionals agree that Covid-19 is real, is much more serious than standard strains of flu, has killed well over 1M people worldwide, and can be significantly controlled by universal mask wearing and social distancing.

Hodkinson, meanwhile, has never been a Chairman of the Royal College of Physicians (according to that organization) and there is no evidence that his biotechnology company is legitimate beyond simply having a business license in North Carolina. 

Sources:

https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-9785042487

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dr-roger-hodkinson-covid-hoax/

https://newsroom.royalcollege.ca/clarification-on-statements-made-regarding-covid-19-by-dr-roger-hodkinson/

Statement on the credibility of Snopes as a fact-checking resource

Someone asked me about the quality of Snopes.com in the comments of one of my posts so I thought I would cross-post my reply here as well in case anyone is interested. I have referenced fact checking from Snopes as well as posting links to Snopes articles, so this is a fair question.

Snopes is different from most other fact checking websites or organizations I use as a source because it is a privately owned website rather than being run by a news organization (AP, AFP, Reuters) or affiliated with a university or nonprofit organization (factcheck.org, Politifact). 

Snopes started in the 1990s as a page to debunk urban legends on the internet and evolved into the multipurpose fact checking site that it is today. It is considered by journalists and other credible folks to be a reliable source and its integrity and neutrality has not come under serious question (other than by extremist individuals and organizations that disagree with the facts in general).

Snopes came under some scrutiny about 4 years ago when the two founders of the site, Barbara and David Mikkelson, underwent a divorce and the ownership of the site was contested between David and a company to whom Barbara sold her share of the site. However, this did not raise specific concerns about the quality or neutrality of the site, just the ownership and the potential for it to be shut down.

One article I read from Forbes (referenced below) tried to cast aspersions on Snopes because David Mikkelson wouldn't divulge specific information about his divorce to the author, but I investigated the author himself and he seems to have personal biases against fact checkers based on articles he's written, so there are some issues with that analysis.

I will say that Snopes has a less formal tone and appearance (and name, frankly) than most other fact checking organizations and because of that I will often make an effort to use them as a secondary or supporting source rather than rely on them entirely, but this isn't always possible. Because Snopes started as an internet page investigating online phenomena, they sometimes fact check stories and viral content that loftier fact checkers aren't as interested in, including many things circulating on Facebook.

Long story short, they are considered credible and non-partisan and I trust their reporting. If more information ever comes to light that suggests otherwise, I will of course cease to use them as a source for my posts, but they've been at it for over 25 years so hopefully that won't happen.

Sources

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48867870

https://www.npr.org/2017/07/26/539576135/fact-checking-website-snopes-is-fighting-to-stay-alive 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2016/12/22/the-daily-mail-snopes-story-and-fact-checking-the-fact-checkers/?sh=408ac618227f 

https://www.snopes.com/team/

 

Claims Pfizer Covid Vaccine Causes Infertility are False

Claim: An article claims that the head of research at Pfizer (maker of one coronavirus vaccine) said that the vaccine causes female sterilization and he and a colleague demanded a halt to testing. 

Rating: ***False News/Misleading***

This article originated on the website/blog Health and Money News, which is a fake news site trafficking in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. Information shared from this site should be considered unreliable and should be verified from more reputable sources before sharing or posting. 

The doctor the article claims is a head of research at Pfizer in fact has not worked for Pfizer since 2011 and had a role of chief scientist for allergy and respiratory diseases, not head of research. He is not involved in the company’s current development of the Covid-19 vaccine. 

He and another doctor did send a letter to the European agency in charge of vaccine trials asking for the trial of the Pfizer vaccine to be halted, citing the potential for the vaccine to block a protein that could inhibit placenta growth in mammals, potentially leading to infertility in female recipients of the vaccine. Their letter, however, did not claim that the vaccine causes infertility or sterilization. 

Furthermore, both doctors have previously been known to disseminate incorrect information about Covid-19, including prematurely declaring the pandemic over and stating that the virus is no more dangerous than seasonal flu, both of which are false. 

Pfizer has publicly released documentation about the efficacy and safety of its vaccine, including that the only side effects observed during the vaccine trials were fatigue and headache in a small number of patients. (See image). 

Given the dubious source of this claim, the misleading credentials given for the doctors, the doctors’ own damaged credibility, and a lack of scientific evidence that the Pfizer vaccine causes sterility, I am rating this claim False News/Misleading.

Sources:

https://www.wthr.com/mobile/article/news/verify/will-the-covid-19-vaccine-cause-infertility-in-women/531-3cb5340a-b3d0-4224-8a52-cfb24e9984a9 

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/covid-vaccine-female-sterilization/

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-conclude-phase-3-study-covid-19-vaccine

Nashville Bombing Conspiracy Theories

Several online conspiracy theories have arisen in the wake of the suicide bombing that took place on Christmas morning in Nashville, Tennessee. I investigated a few of these and all are, unsurprisingly, false. Police and the FBI have not yet revealed a motive for the bombing, as of this writing. Law enforcement has identified Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, as the suspect in the attack.

Claim: AT&T had a contract to audit Dominion Voting Systems machines and the bombing was intended to disrupt this process.

Rating: ***False***

Several fact check organizations including the Associated Press, AFP, and Snopes.com have determined that AT&T had no such contract and no Dominion machines were present in the building which may or may not have even been a direct target of the bombing. Both companies have also confirmed that this claim is false.

Claim: The blast was the result of a missile strike or “directed energy weapon”.

Rating: ***False***

Fact Checkers at Reuters news agency and Snopes investigated this claim and there is zero evidence that this is the case. In fact, many witness reports and surveillance cameras show the RV/Motorhome explode after emitting a warning that it would shortly do so. DNA evidence shows that the owner of the RV was killed in the blast that also injured three people.

Claim: A man pictured in a Trump 2020 hat is the Nashville Bomber

Rating: ***False***

A photo circulated on social media of a man wearing a Trump 2020 hat does not resemble the photo released by law enforcement of Anthony Quinn Warner, the suspect in the bombing case and owner of the RV.

Sources:

https://apnews.com/article/nashville-explosion-anthony-warner-rv-2cc36514764d302b9fd5e0781a3c31f4 

https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-afs:Content:9898209641

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/att-nashville-dominion-audit/

https://factcheck.afp.com/conspiracy-theory-links-false-claim-att-election-audit-bombing

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-nashville-missile/fact-check-nashville-blast-was-not-caused-by-a-missile-strike-idUSKBN2921OW

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/missile-strike-nashville-explosion/

https://factcheck.afp.com/photo-man-trump-hat-does-not-show-nashville-bomber