On the recordDecember 7, 2011
I thank Senator Isakson and thank him for being here. I will turn to Senator Hutchison from Texas. We have actually 40 Senators already on this legislation--40 Senators. It is bipartisan. This is something we absolutely need to move on. I spoke with the Canadian Ambassador today, Ambassador Doer. He talked about how they are already looking at Western routes to send this oil to China. So this oil is going to be produced. It is going to be produced. The question is, Does it come to the United States and help us reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil? Does it come here and create thousands of jobs or do we send it to China where there will actually be more emissions because it will be refined in refineries that produce higher emissions? We will also have the emissions of shipping product all around the world, not only shipping this oil to China but then we are going to continue to have to ship oil from places such as the Middle East and Venezuela. So we actually increase CO<INF>2</INF> emissions without this project. Now, in Texas, of course, we have refineries, and Senator Hutchison is here to talk about just how important it is we bring this product down to our refineries in the gulf coast region.
