NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
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Biden policies did not lead to thousands of Shell layoffs
CLAIM: Shell is eliminating 9,000 jobs because of President Joe Biden.
THE FACTS: A post circulating on Facebook falsely links Shell layoffs to the Biden administration. “Shell oil laying off 9000 workers Thanks Biden,” states the false post. But energy producer Royal Dutch Shell announced in September, before Biden was even elected, that the company would cut up to 9,000 jobs worldwide. At the time, Shell said that around 1,500 employees had agreed to take voluntary redundancy. The cuts follow a drop in oil demand during the pandemic. The false posts emerged weeks after Biden signed an executive order his first day in office revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, halting construction. The 1,700-mile pipeline was planned to carry roughly 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta in Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. Biden’s executive order cited economic and climate reasons for revoking the permit. Keystone XL President Richard Prior said over 1,000 jobs, the majority unionized, will be eliminated in the coming weeks. “The assertion that Shell is eliminating jobs as a result of moves made by the Biden administration is inaccurate,” Anna Arata, a spokesperson for Shell, told the AP in an email. Arata further stated that “up to 9,000 positions would be eliminated as part of a broader effort to reduce costs, simplify the company’s structure and accelerate investments in lower-carbon energy products.”
— Associated Press writer Arijeta Lajka in New York...
