On the recordNovember 18, 2014
Mr. President, I will be controlling the time in opposition, very strong opposition, to this legislation. Before I yield to the first debater on our side, who will be Chairman Leahy--and I am very honored that he will be--let me just say before Senator Landrieu leaves the floor that Senator Landrieu is the only reason we are debating this today. So anyone who wants to play games about this and name this bill the Cassidy bill, that kind of is a joke because I believe I am correct that he introduced it November 12 of this year and the Hoeven-Landrieu bill was introduced in May. But setting politics aside, let the Record be clear forever that this debate would not be before this body were it not for Senator Landrieu's insistence. I want that to be clear. Secondly, we will hear today, I think, a terrific debate because the people who support this think not only that this is a good thing for the country--to build the Keystone XL Pipeline--they think it is a great thing for this country. I have great respect for them. On the other side, we have those of us who think it is not a good thing for this country, it is not a good thing for jobs, it is not a good thing for energy independence because it will be exported, all that oil, and it is actually dangerous. In my case, I was thinking, what does ``XL'' stand for? They named it the Keystone XL. It has no meaning, but to me it is extra lethal.…





