Actually, I don't think the administration can make any rules for steel source if it is not a federal project. Buy America only applies to federally funded projects ... and I don't think either pipeline is federally funded ... nor will the Alaska gas line be federally funded.

Trump rather gave everybody the impression he could make that happen, but I think that's showmanship rather than truth. It's no different than some of the things Obama claimed he would do that he didn't actually do because he didn't have the power to do them. Presidents have been doing that sort of wink-wink-bully pulpit policy for as long as I've been paying attention ... Carter was president. Sometimes, just by saying it, presidents put pressure on companies to do certain things that they would not otherwise have done.

And, I wouldn't be at all surprised to discover that US steel isn't that much more expensive in the Dakotas than Chinese steel, given shipping costs.