Lee Terry: “Will the gentleman yield on that point? Mr. DeFAZIO. No, I'm sorry, I don't have enough time. We would just deem that…”

“Will the gentleman yield on that point? Mr. DeFAZIO. No, I'm sorry, I don't have enough time. We would just deem that pipelines anywhere and everywhere met national interest, public safety, and that. I also raised the point earlier that this will transport tar sands oil through a pipeline which the IRS has deemed not to be oil, so it won't pay the normal excise tax to go to the trust fund which takes care of leaks, like the one we just recently had in Kansas. It will go to a tax-free export zone to a refinery half owned by Saudi Arabia and this will bring us energy independence. Independence from whom? Every time we pump another barrel, the Saudis and OPEC drop a barrel. They're keeping the price up. There is no free market in oil. You guys all know that. This is not going to save Americans one penny at the pump. If you want to save Americans money at the pump, let's go after the speculators on Wall Street who are adding 75 cents or $1 to the price of a gallon of gas. Let's go after the collusion by the oil companies that shut down all the refineries all at once every year at the beginning of the refining season for periodic maintenance, which they couldn't predict was going to happen, or sometimes there's a little accident. Except it turned out last year with an investigation they weren't really shut down--they just jacked up the price 50 cents a gallon like they always do.…”