On the recordMay 17, 2012
I encourage the conferees to include approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. It will get Americans back to work. And while we're developing the alternative energy sources of the future, it will reduce our current dependency on purchasing oil from countries that don't share our values. I understand the reasons why some folks are opposed to any new and unconventional sources of traditional energy that we rely on. The argument essentially is: More of the same means we'll increase our dependence upon a dirty source of energy. It will increase our dependence upon oil as the basic feedstock for transportation energy in this country. Mr. Speaker, you can't increase your dependence beyond 100 percent. We are 100 percent dependent upon oil and its byproducts for the transportation energy in this country. Unlike the energy we get out of the walls or off the grid or out of the light sockets, a whole bunch of different energy feedstocks go into that basic energy commodity--some of it's coal; some of it's natural gas; some of it's nuclear, like the plants we're building in my district at Plant Vogtle; some of it's wind and solar. We've got a lot of different energy feedstocks that go into the wires and we utilize in every other way. But the transportation energy in this country that we use to push all of our trucks, all of our cars, and all of our tractors, it all comes from oil. We've got all of our transportation eggs in one energy basket.…
