ABC's World News Tonight pushed the myth that building the Keystone XL pipeline could create up to 40,000 jobs. In fact, the pipeline is expected to create as few as 50 permanent jobs.

During a November 18 report on the failed Senate vote to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, World News Tonight anchor David Muir stated that “many argued it could have created thousands of American jobs.” ABC White House correspondent Jonathan Karl added that “the jobs estimates range from 4,000 to 40,000 jobs. Proponents say it not only creates jobs, but it could lead to energy independence.”

But PolitiFact has classified similar claims that the construction of the pipeline would create tens of thousands of jobs to be “mostly false,” because a vast majority of the jobs would be temporary, and it “does not amount to tens of thousands of full-time jobs in the most common sense of employment.” According to PolitiFact, “the State Department estimates the operation of the pipeline will only create 35 permanent, full-time jobs and 15 temporary contractors” once construction is complete.

The pipeline would also do little for "energy independence." Much of the oil that would be carried by the pipeline is slated for export, and U.S. imports of oil would be minimally affected by the supply that would flow through the pipeline.