THE KEYSTONE XL oil pipeline won’t use American steel in its construction, despite what President Donald Trump says.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that’s due to language in a presidential directive Trump issued in January. The directive applies to new pipelines or those under repair. Sanders said it would be hard to do an about-face on Keystone because it’s already under construction and the steel has been acquired.

Trump said as recently as last week that Keystone and the Dakota Access pipeline must use American steel “or we’re not building one.”

The January order saw Trump unequivocal:

“I am very insistent that if we are going to build pipelines in the United States the pipes should be made in the United States,” Trump said.

“We want to build the pipe, put a lot of steel workers back to work.”

Trump used his executive powers shortly after taking office to greenlight the two pipeline projects that had been blocked by President Barack Obama.

The Keystone pipeline would run from Canada to refineries in the Gulf Coast. The Dakota Access line would move North Dakota oil to Illinois, and that project is nearly complete.

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