Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, this week, the House of Representatives is going to vote on a very important piece of legislation that should be unnecessary. Due to the President's objection--at the insistence of Hollywood and the EPA--a critical piece of North America's energy security puzzle languishes on a desk in the Oval Office while thousands of unemployed workers collect government benefits instead of a paycheck. That is why I cosponsored and am doing all I can to pass H.R. 3, the Keystone pipeline Northern Route Approval Act, a bill that renders the northern route of the pipeline approved for construction, eliminating the need for a Presidential permit. As vast reserves of oil are discovered and new technologies unlocked, energy security in this decade is well within our reach. The amount of oil that could be flowing to U.S. refineries in the Keystone XL represents nearly 50 percent of the oil that we currently import from the Middle East. Mr. Speaker, in addition to sitting on two of the subcommittees that held hearings on this legislation, I have a long history of involvement with TransCanada and the Keystone pipeline as a former environmental regulator in North Dakota. From 2003 until my election to Congress last year, I carried the pipeline portfolio as one of three members of the North Dakota Public Service Commission.…”