President Trump on Tuesday signed orders to advance construction of the controversial Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines. 
 
 The orders do not grant the final permits needed for the oil pipelines but will move both projects toward approval, a person familiar with the action said. 
 
 The Trump administration began to inform lawmakers starting late Monday that the orders were coming. 
 
 The orders fulfill Trump's campaign promise to approve both pipelines, which have staunch support from the oil industry and the GOP but are strongly opposed by Democrats and environmentalists. 
 
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 The White House did not provide more details. 
 
 “It certainly confirms his commitment both to the rule of law and to job creation and energy security, which is pretty critical,” said Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a close Trump ally whose state would contain segments of both pipelines. 
 
 Cramer called it a “pretty significant differentiation between the previous administration and this one.” 
 
 Former President Obama rejected Keystone in November 2015, citing the need to show international leadership on climate change. 
 
 If fully built by developer TransCanada Corp., Keystone would run from Alberta, Canada, which contains a bulk of that nation's oil sands, to the Gulf Coast in Texas, bringing heavy oil sands petroleum to refineries. 
 
 Last month, the Obama administration ordered a comprehensive environmental impact statement to be conducted on the Dakota Access pipeline before any decision could be made on building its final section below Lake Oahe in North Dakota. 
 
 The pipeline has been the subject of international protests that have fired up environmentalists and indigenous rights activists. 
 
 They say that the pipeline threatens the water supply of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, and further development of oil infrastructure threatens the climate. 
 
 The two projects require different approvals. Keystone needs a presidential permit to build across the Canadian border, while Dakota Access, developed by Energy Transfer Partners, needs an Army Corps of Engineers easement to build under Lake Oahe. 
 
 White House press secretary Sean Spicer, asked Monday about plans to approve Keystone and Dakota Access, said he was “not going to get in front of the president’s executive actions.” 
 
 But he went on to say that the projects are “areas where we can increase jobs, increase economic growth and tap into America’s energy supply more.” 
 
 The planned orders were first reported Tuesday by Bloomberg. 
 
 — Updated at 11:34 a.m. ||||| Trump says he will demand a better deal and use of U.S. steel 
 
 President Donald Trump took steps to advance construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines, while demanding a renegotiation to get a better deal for the U.S. government. 
 
 Trump stopped short of green lighting construction on either pipeline but put a deadline on the government’s review of TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Keystone XL to transport Alberta oil sands crude to U.S. refineries. Trump also announced policies to encourage the use of American-made products in U.S. pipeline projects and to curtail federal environmental reviews for major infrastructure projects. 
 
 “If we’re going to build pipelines in the United States, the pipes should be made in the United States,” Trump said. 
 
 The moves, taken on Trump’s fourth full day in office, are a major departure from the Obama administration, which rejected the Keystone proposal in 2015 and has kept Dakota Access blocked since September. Environmentalists, concerned about climate change and damage to water and land, now face an executive branch that’s less sympathetic to their efforts. For the oil industry, it heralds more freedom to expand infrastructure and ease transportation bottlenecks. 
 
 White House spokesman Sean Spicer cast that possible renegotiation of the Dakota Access project as a way to address concerns by stakeholders, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which is concerned about Native-American cultural sites and the safety of its water supply. 
 
 While both projects will create jobs and grow the economy, they also will enrich the companies behind them, Spicer told reporters. “If we’re going to do all these things to expedite these projects that go over or under American soil,” then Trump wants to make sure American taxpayers get “the best deal possible,” he said. 
 
 QuickTake: Tar Sands and the Environmental Debate Over Keystone 
 
 TransCanada closed 2.7 percent higher at C$64.24 in Toronto on Tuesday. Energy Transfer Equity LP and Energy Transfer Partners LP, the developers of the Dakota project, climbed 2 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively. 
 
 TransCanada is preparing its re-application and intends to submit it, the company said in a statement. 
 
 The documents signed Tuesday include an executive order designed to expedite “high-priority infrastructure projects.” Under the directive, Trump said projects that win that classification from the White House Council on Environmental Quality will be given swifter reviews, under “expedited procedures and deadlines for completion” of necessary environmental analysis. 
 
 A separate memo asks the Secretary of Commerce to develop strategies for streamlining permitting and reducing regulatory burdens for domestic manufacturers. 
 
 “We intend to fix our country, our bridges our roadways,” Trump said. “We can’t be in an environmental process for 15 years if a bridge is going to be falling down or if a highway is crumbling.” 
 
 Read more: Keystone’s Thousands of Jobs Fall to 20 When Opened 
 
 Trump also told the Commerce Department to develop a plan to force a “Buy America” requirement on all new pipelines, so they “use materials and equipment produced in the United States.” In a memo outlining the change, Trump said the rules should apply “to the maximum extent possible.” 
 
 About half of Keystone XL was set to be built with steel fabricated in the U.S., according to a 2012 breakdown from TransCanada of an earlier version of the project. Roughly a quarter was set to be supplied by Canada, TransCanada said at the time, with Italy and India providing the rest. Most of the Dakota Access pipeline is already finished, with 57 percent of the project manufactured in the United States. 
 
 Jack Gerard, head of the American Petroleum Institute, said he was “pleased to see the new direction being taken by this administration to recognize the importance of our nation’s energy infrastructure by restoring the rule of law in the permitting process that’s critical to pipelines and other infrastructure projects.” 
 
 Canada has not received any formal notice of action by Trump on the pipelines but still supports Keystone, a project for which Canadian approvals remain in place. 
 
 “It’s good for Canada and it’s particularly good for the people of Alberta,” Canada’s natural resources minister Jim Carr told reporters Tuesday in Calgary. 
 
 Environmental activists vowed to continue battling both projects. 
 
 The Standing Rock tribe said it “will take legal action to fight” Trump’s action, terming it a “politically motivated decision” that “violates the law.” 
 
 “President Trump is legally required to honor our treaty rights and provide a fair and reasonable pipeline process,” said Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. “The existing pipeline route risks infringing on our treaty rights, contaminating our water and the water of 17 million Americans downstream.” 
 
 To accelerate the Dakota Access pipeline, Trump directed the Army secretary to reconsider its earlier decision to conduct deeper environmental scrutiny of the project. The Army Corps of Engineers should consider relying on an earlier, broader assessment from July instead, Trump said in a memo. Project foes would almost certainly challenge any decision by the Army Corps to abandon the environmental analysis ordered under the Obama administration. 
 
 Trump compelled similar action to speed permitting of Keystone XL, asking TransCanada to re-submit its application for the project and giving the State Department a 60-day deadline for determining whether the pipeline is in the U.S. national interest. In a memo, Trump asks the State Department to rely on an earlier environmental review of the project for its determination, rather than conducting new analysis that could take months or years. 
 
 The company’s plans for Keystone XL have already been vetted, with years of environmental scrutiny culminating in Obama’s 2015 decision rejecting the project. 
 
 Environmentalists’ Fight 
 
 The makeup of Keystone XL has come under scrutiny before. When the Senate considered legislation that would force approval of the project in 2015, Republicans blocked attempts to require the project be built with domestically produced steel. 
 
 Keep up with the best of Bloomberg Politics. Get our newsletter daily. 
 
 Environmentalists fiercely battled Keystone XL, making it a flashpoint in broader debates about U.S. energy policy and climate change. Landowners in the pipeline’s path have warned that a spill of dense crude could contaminate the Ogallala aquifer, a source of drinking water that stretches from Texas to South Dakota. And activists said it would promote further development of oil sands in Alberta, Canada that generally require more energy to extract. 
 
 Violent Protests 
 
 Dakota Access opponents say the pipeline would damage sites culturally significant to Native Americans and pose an environmental hazard where it crosses the Missouri River. Earlier this month, the Department of the Army withheld the final easement necessary for construction beneath the lake. 
 
 Swift approval of Dakota Access could reinvigorate the sometimes violent protests at the site of the proposed construction. 
 
 Josh Nelson, the deputy political director of the CREDO activist group said the action shows Trump is “in the pocket of big corporations and foreign oil interests.” 
 
 “Fierce grassroots activism has stopped these pipelines over and over again,” he said. “CREDO will do everything in its power to stop the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, and keep dirty fossil fuels in the ground where they belong.” 
 
 Energy Infrastructure 
 
 Pipeline supporters said a final easement for the project would illustrate Trump’s commitment to building out energy infrastructure needed to ferry oil and gas around the U.S. Although Keystone XL would transport oil sands crude from Canada, some space on the line is slated to be filled by supplies from North Dakota’s Bakken shale play. 
 
 Dakota Access, likewise, is aimed at giving Bakken producers a new route to energy markets, allowing them to forgo more costly rail shipments that have been a backstop when existing pipes fill up. With a capacity of about 470,000 barrels a day, Dakota Access would ship about half of current Bakken crude production and enable producers to access Midwest and Gulf Coast markets. 
 
 “What we saw today was bold and decisive action by President Trump,” Terry O’Sullivan, general president of LiUNA, said in a conference call with reporters. “He said he was going to create middle-class jobs, and by what he did today, that’s exactly what he’s going to do.” 
 
 Energy Transfer owns the Dakota Access project with Phillips 66 and Sunoco Logistics Partners LP. Marathon Petroleum Corp. and Enbridge Energy Partners LP announced a venture in August that would also take a minority stake in the pipeline. ||||| TransCanada announced that the Trump State Department approved a permit for the authorization for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. | Getty Trump administration greenlights Keystone Pipeline 
 
 Declaring “a new era of American energy,” the Trump administration approved construction of the Keystone XL pipeline Friday in a sharp reversal of one of Barack Obama's most controversial environmental decisions. 
 
 President Donald Trump called the oil pipeline’s cross-border permit "long overdue" and said his administration would follow it with other infrastructure projects soon. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 "This announcement is part of a new era of American energy policy that will lower costs for American families, and very significantly," Trump in the Oval Office, where he was flanked by the head of pipeline company TransCanada, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and representatives of trade unions. 
 
 TransCanada still needs approval for the pipeline's route through Nebraska from state regulators there, a process that could take several more months — a factor Trump appeared unaware of on Friday. 
 
 "So the bottom line: Keystone finished. We're going to start construction when?" Trump asked TransCanada CEO Russ Girling, who replied the company had "some work" to do in Nebraska. 
 
 "Nebraska?" Trump replied. "I'll call Nebraska." 
 
 During the presidential campaign, Trump had promised to approve the pipeline as part of a plan to boost U.S. energy production. And just days after taking office, Trump set a 60-day deadline for the State Department to decide whether to issue the permit for the project, which would run nearly 1,200 miles across the U.S. and connect the oil sands fields in Alberta, Canada, to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast. 
 
 Trump said the years-long fight over the project "demonstrates how our government has too often failed its citizens and companies over the past long period of time. Today we begin to make things right and to do things right. Today we take one more step in putting the jobs, wages and economic security of Americans first." 
 
 The Obama administration had cited environmental concerns in rejecting the permit in 2015. That decision came after a massive, seven-year opposition campaign by environmental groups that turned the pipeline into a symbol of their fight against expanding the use of fossils fuels blamed for causing climate change. 
 
 Trump chided Girling, saying all the company's previous lobbying had been in vain. "In fact, you should ask for your hundreds of millions back because they didn't do a damn thing except get you a 'no' vote," he said. 
 
 In a statement, Trump's State Department said it had considered foreign policy implications of the decision, as well as the nation's energy security and the environmental, cultural, and economic impacts. 
 
 But the State Department said it relied on previous environmental studies into the possible environmental effects of Keystone. The 30-page explanation the department gave for its new decision refers constantly to findings from the earlier Obama-era report with no new material outside of communications from TransCanada. 
 
 Green groups are hoping that could open the permit up to litigation, said the Natural Resources Defense Council's Canada Project director, Anthony Swift. 
 
 “This decision doesn't seem to have been made with a great deal of thoroughness," Swift said. "One would hope there would be a significant paper trail supporting their decision, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. State seems to have been put in a position that they would have to use the same information to reach an opposite conclusion. ” 
 
 The oil industry hailed the news of the permit, with Jack Gerard, head of the American Petroleum Institute, saying the Keystone pipeline had been studied more than any other pipeline project in U.S. history. He said the project "is critical to creating American jobs, growing the economy, and making our nation more energy secure.” 
 
 TransCanada also said it will now drop the $15 billion NAFTA complaint that it filed last year. That complaint sought to recoup the money the company had spent on developing the pipeline before the Obama administration blocked the project. 
 
 "We greatly appreciate President Trump’s administration for reviewing and approving this important initiative and we look forward to working with them as we continue to invest in and strengthen North America’s energy infrastructure,” Girling said in a statement. 
 
 Trump did not mention his earlier statements that the pipeline should be made with U.S.- sourced steel. He had touted that requirement as recently as Monday, telling a rally in Kentucky he would require TransCanada to use American-made steel to build the U.S.-side of the pipeline, despite the White House’s admission earlier this month that it would not hold Keystone XL to that standard. 
 
 A group of 15 lawmakers joined a letter that Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill. ) sent to Trump, calling on him to make TransCanada buy more U.S.-made steel for its pipeline. 
 
 “Time and again we’ve heard that the American people would be better served if the federal government had better negotiators,” Bustos wrote in her letter. “Now, as our country’s chief executive and lead negotiator, it appears you are allowing a deal to go forward while reversing on what you’ve called the ‘core principles’ for American infrastructure investment.” ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A Native American tribe has been celebrating the decision 
 
 Two firms behind a controversial oil pipeline in the US have accused the White House of political interference for failing to approve its completion. 
 
 The US Army said it would not authorise the final section of the Dakota Access Pipeline to allow alternative routes to be considered. 
 
 The decision is a win for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe who have protested against the pipeline for months. 
 
 But the next US president, Donald Trump, says he supports the project. 
 
 The multi-billion, 1,200-mile (1,900 km) pipeline, crossing four states, is intended to slash the costs of transferring crude. It is nearly complete except for a section planned to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir on the Missouri River. 
 
 The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their supporters fear it will contaminate drinking water and run over sacred burial sites. 
 
 Months of protests, on federal land, have seen clashes between the demonstrators and law enforcement. 
 
 The final stretch required a permit from federal authorities but on Sunday, the US Army Corps of Engineers refused to grant it so it could undertake "an environmental impact statement to look at possible alternative routes". 
 
 The two firms involved, Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics, attacked the move as a "purely political action". 
 
 Noting that the project already has court approval, the companies accused the White House of abandoning the rule of law "in favour of currying favour with a narrow and extreme political constituency". 
 
 The battle continues: By James Cook, BBC North America Correspondent 
 
 The Battle of Standing Rock is far from over. 
 
 A memorandum from the US Army Corps of Engineers might strongly suggest that the pipeline will be re-routed but it does not actually say that will happen. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's James Cook visits the Standing Rock camps 
 
 It talks of "consideration" and "discussion" of other locations and of a "more robust analysis of alternatives" before permission "is granted for the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross the Missouri river on Corps land". 
 
 The Corps also acknowledges that the project has been ruled lawful by the courts. 
 
 Plus it hardly needs pointing out that Barack Obama, whom the protestors praise for this decision, will soon be succeeded by Donald Trump, a supporter of the project who has previously invested in Energy Transfer Partners and may still hold stock in a related firm, Phillips 66. 
 
 It would be a very big surprise indeed were Mr Trump not to try to reverse a move by the Corps of Engineers which one Republican in North Dakota said sent a "very chilling signal" for the future of infrastructure in the US. 
 
 Both companies added they "fully expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting in and around Lake Oahe". 
 
 Republican North Dakotan politicians too have piled in, with Governor Jack Dalrymple calling the decision a "serious mistake" 
 
 In contrast there has been jubilation among protesters, who have numbered in their thousands, enduring bitter cold at encampments. 
 
 Adan Bearcub, a Native American and military veteran, said "this is the best news that I've heard forever - best news for Native people, native country, the whole United States - all the people. Water is so precious." 
 
 How social media saw it 
 
 The US army's decision has delighted high-profile opponents of the pipeline, such as actress Shailene Woodley, who was arrested at a protest in October. 
 
 Image copyright @shailenewoodley 
 
 Singer Alicia Keys shared a picture and a famous Native American quote. 
 
 Image copyright @aliciakeys 
 
 Police have been criticised for using excessive force during the protests, something Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein appeared to allude to. 
 
 Image copyright @DrJillStein 
 
 But there were also warnings the victory could be short-lived.
– Two controversial pipelines stopped by the Obama administration just got revived by the Trump administration. The president signed executive actions Tuesday to advance construction on the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, reports the Hill. The moves do not equate to final approval, and the next steps are a little unclear. Both projects may need to be formally re-submitted, and they will still face tough fights from opposition lawmakers, environmentalists, and, in the case of the Dakota pipeline, Native American protesters. What's more, the agreements for both will have to be renegotiated, reports the AP. Trump, for instance, wants all the material for the pipelines to come from the US, a provision that will likely be tough to enforce. "This is not a done deal," says Bill McKibben, founder of the anti-Keystone group 350.org, per the New York Times. "The last time around, TransCanada was so confident they literally mowed the strip where they planned to build the pipeline, before people power stopped them. People will mobilize again." Still, TransCanada shares were climbing on the news, as were those for Energy Transfer Partners LP, which is behind the Dakota project, notes Bloomberg. Before signing the orders, Trump met with auto industry leaders and said environmental regulations were "out of control." He said it was "absolutely crazy" that it takes so long for permits to be granted. "I am, to a large extent, an environmentalist," he said, per Politico. "I believe in it. But it’s out of control."