US President Barack Obama said in a July 27 interview with the New York Times that construction of the Keystone XL pipeline would create around 2,000 jobs during construction – which he estimated would last one to two years – after which that number would fall off to 50-100.

Oil and gas trade group API, unsurprisingly, disagrees with the President’s estimates. The group drew attention to a July 2013 PricewaterhouseCoopers report – prepared for API – which says the US oil and natural gas industry directly or indirectly created or supported 9.8 million full and part-time jobs in 2011.

“The president may scoff at or misconstrue the jobs this pipeline can create, but no one can deny that spending billions of private dollars on a pipeline that will run from Canada to Texas isn’t going to create thousands of American jobs and help the U.S. economy,” said API President Jack Gerard in a call with reporters yesterday.

“The State Department continues to delay the creation of 42,000  jobs that their own assessment predicts will be created by the Keystone XL pipeline.”