Ed Markey: “If I may speak briefly on the amendment, I thank the chair of the energy committee. I thank her for her courtesy and the…”

“If I may speak briefly on the amendment, I thank the chair of the energy committee. I thank her for her courtesy and the Senator from Ohio as well. While we will not be having the full debate at this time on the Senate floor, we are in fact beginning with a critical issue, an issue that relates to climate change, American energy independence, the impact that legislation can have upon consumers--drivers in our country in terms of how much they are paying at the pump. It deals with actually the mission of young men and women in our country who go overseas in order to protect tankers of oil that are brought back to our country. So the first question that will be asked in this debate is whether the oil, which is going to be delivered through this pipeline from Canada, is going to stay in the United States of America. The Canadian tar sands oil is the dirtiest oil in the world. The pipeline, similar to a straw, is going to be built through the United States down to Port Arthur, TX, a tax-free export zone. You don't have to have an MBA from business school to figure out what this 3-by-5 card looks like. It is something that basically says, since the price of a barrel of oil on the global market is $17 higher than what the Canadians can get for the tar sands oil--that they want to get it out of the country, which is why it is going to end in Port Arthur, TX, an export zone.…”