For Republicans, Pipes Are Infrastructure Only If They Carry Oil

For Republicans, Pipes Are Infrastructure Only If They Carry Oil

In an interview last week with Fox News' Sean Hannity, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) expressed outrage over the fact that President Joe Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure package calls for significant investments in housing and water pipes — literal infrastructure.

“I was shocked by how much doesn't go into infrastructure,” she said. “It goes into research and development, it goes into housing and pipes and different initiatives, green energy, and it's not really an honest conversation that we're having about what this proposal is.”

“I'm frustrated,” she added.

Apparently, Noem's definition of energy infrastructure starts and stops with fossil fuels. 

In 2017, Noem signed on to a letter in which she and more than 80 other Republican members of Congress called on then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to safeguard oil and gas pipelines from protesters. “Maintaining safe and reliable energy infrastructure is a matter of national security,” they wrote.

Joe Raedle via Getty Images

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The letter exposes the real issue Noem and other Republicans have with Biden's infrastructure plan: It prioritizes pipes that carry water rather than fossil fuels, and energy sources other than oil and gas.

A lengthy White House fact sheet on