Political Quotes

“Madam President, I rise again to speak about the Dakota Access Pipeline issue in North Dakota. Again, I want to emphasize that we need to focus on the facts and understand what is really going on there. On Saturday, the Obama administration announced its refusal to issue the final easement for the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross a narrow section deep underneath the Missouri River. This easement is required to finish the 1,172-mile-long pipeline which is already 98 percent complete in North Dakota--98 percent complete in North Dakota--and 86 percent complete overall. As I have indicated before on the floor, it runs from the Bakken oilfields in North Dakota, moving North Dakota light sweet crude all the way to Patoka, IL, so oil can go into all of the refineries along the eastern part of the country and the eastern seaboard. In fact, our light sweet crude oil competes with OPEC. If they are not using our light sweet crude, they are bringing in oil from places like Saudi Arabia for these eastern refineries. So very important in terms of energy independence for our country, but as I said, this pipeline is 98 percent complete in our State. Now, again, the Obama administration is delaying it. Unfortunately, this latest Obama administration decision fails to follow the rule of law, it fails to resolve the issue, and it perpetuates an extremely difficult situation for North Dakotans.…”