Barbara Boxer: “I think we are going to take a recess shortly. I just wanted to thank everybody on both sides for their statements. To…”

“I think we are going to take a recess shortly. I just wanted to thank everybody on both sides for their statements. To sum it up from my perspective, you have a situation here that, frankly, I am very glad we are confronting because there are lots of people who say: Oh, this is no big deal, it is just a little pipeline, and we have so many pipelines. Senator Thune said: Oh, it is so much safer to transport this oil by pipeline than other ways. Just try telling that to the people of Marshall, MI. There was a spill in 2010 in the Kalamazoo River. They are still trying to clean it up. It is not the pipeline that is the issue, folks, it is the dirty tar sands oil that is so much more dangerous, has more heavy metals, and more carcinogens. It is a problem. By virtue of its weight, it sinks to the bottom, and they cannot clean it up. I can't believe the statement was made about how safe this is. We have seen stories that there are problems with the welding in the existing pipeline. We might want to speak to the people in Mayflower, AR. Do my colleagues know that Exxon had to buy back the homes because they couldn't be lived in anymore because this stuff spilled and contaminated an entire neighborhood? So I call this the extra lethal pipeline. The pipeline itself is benign.…”