Claim: Alexandria Ocasio Cortez claimed that the leaking oil was caused by the Keystone XL pipeline, which has yet to be builtSince her election in 2019, U.S. Rep. Alexandria OcasioCortez has been a target of conservatives as she is the youngest female elected member to Congress.A Facebook post was widely shared and focused on a comment made by Democrat from New York about the South Dakota oil spillage."Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attributed the Keystone XL pipe to leaking approximately 5,000 barrels oil in rural South Dakota two years ago," states a April 10 Facebook post, which has been shared over 27,000 times. "The Keystone XL pipeline is still not built. That's the problem.This post echoes a Daily Signal article in 2019, which stated that Ocasio-Cortez attributed the Keystone XL pipeline to leaking oil in rural South Dakota two years ago.Ocasio Cortez said that, but it isn't quite as absurdist as the post suggests. USA TODAY reached out for comment.A Keystone oil spillage occurredOcasio-Cortez stated that the Keystone XL pipeline had been leaked during a House Financial Services Committee hearing on March 12, 2019.Ocasio Cortez stated at the hearing that "The Keystone XL in particular had one leak that emitted 210,000 gallons throughout South Dakota."She was posing a question to Timothy Sloan, CEO of Wells Fargo, about whether his company should pay for the cleanup. Sloan replied that Wells Fargo was not involved in financing the Keystone Pipeline section which failed.Ocasio-Cortetz also misidentified the pipeline as Keystone XL. This is the fourth unbuilt phase of the Keystone Pipeline. In January, President Joe Biden pulled the border crossing permit due to concerns about the possible climate impact.Fact Check: Facebook posts about U.S. millionaires but not wealthy members of CongressThe Keystone Pipeline was not affected by the leak.Continue the storyOcasio-Cortez was talking about a November 2017 incident where 210,000 gallons oil were reported to have leaked from South Dakota's Keystone Pipeline. When the leak occurred, she also tweeted about it.According to The Associated Press, the leak was discovered to be twice as large as originally reported.According to Brian Walsh, a spokesperson for South Dakota's Department of Environment and Natural Resources in 2017, it was the worst Keystone oil spillage in South Dakota.Other leaks from the Keystone Pipeline have also occurred since then, including one in 2019, when more than 380,000 gallons oil leaked into North Dakota. The Keystone Pipeline runs from Hardisty in Alberta to Winnipeg and down to Texas. There is also a branch to Illinois. The Keystone XL pipeline would have created a diagonal route that cut through Nebraska, South Dakota, and Montana.Fact Check: Ad exaggerates veterans loan program's benefitsUSA TODAY's request for comment from Ocasio Cortez's press secretary, Ivet contreras, was not returned by Contreras.Our Rating: Not enough contextMISSING CONTEXT claims that Ocasio-Cortez claimed the Keystone XL pipeline, which is still unbuilt, was responsible for an oil spillage. Although she did mention it, the post does not acknowledge that the oil spillage was caused by the Keystone Pipeline. This means that her description was inaccurate by a few letters and is not necessarily a reflection of Ocasio-Cortez's ignorance that the XL Pipeline hadn't been constructed.Sources for fact-checking:We appreciate your support of our journalism. Subscribe to our print edition, an ad-free digital app, or electronic replica of the newspaper hereFacebook grants part of our fact-checking work.This article was originally published on USA TODAY. Fact Check: AOC made a mistake when blaming Keystone XL for a leak
