Tom Harkin: “I oppose this legislation to approve the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Again, I believe it is one more step…”

“I oppose this legislation to approve the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Again, I believe it is one more step in the wrong direction, one more capitulation to our fossil fuel habit, one more accelerant to global warming that threatens our children's future. I know I have limited time. I just want to point out that we have had a number of studies done by the Department of Energy recently. One study found that retrofitting residential and commercial buildings had the potential to reduce consumer demand by 30 percent by 2030 and reduce greenhouse emissions by 1.1 gigatons each year, saving over $680 billion. The second study found the retrofits--I am talking about building retrofits in America--could save $1 trillion in energy spending over 10 years and reduce CO<INF>2</INF> emissions by 10 percent. What would retrofitting do for jobs? According to the Rockefeller Foundation, this type of retrofitting nationally would create 3.3 million new jobs. So why are we talking about building a pipeline that is going to cause the development of more tar sands oil, which is the dirtiest oil in the world--the dirtiest--when it is going to create a few jobs for a very short period of time, a couple of years and that is it.…”