Lee Terry: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, the purpose of this pipeline is so that American citizens will have a reliable…”

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, the purpose of this pipeline is so that American citizens will have a reliable source of fuel made in America. That's the whole point of this. And there are companies that are expanding their refineries right now to be able to accept this crude. Now, it's been stated that if we don't use it, then this is not going to be used because it's landlocked, but nothing could be further from the truth. It's only 800 miles from the point that the oil sands will be used to the Vancouver coast where it could be put on and would be put on tankers to be shipped to China. Now, Enbridge is already in the promoting process for a pipeline that will link the Athabasca fields in northern Alberta to a terminal in Kitimat, British Colombia. It's 525,000 barrels per day. So the statement that it will be landlocked and never used is just simply flat wrong. That is not what the Canadians will do. To say that it's going to be sent to our refineries in Oklahoma, Chicago, Texas, and Louisiana so it could be then refined and put on a tanker then to go south through the Panama Canal and through just makes no sense because we have the most stringent regulations in refining and on cleaning, or a clean process that adds a great deal more to the cost of refining, so it just makes no economic sense to do that. It would be much cheaper just to put a pipeline to the west coast of Canada, put it on tankers. It would be much cheaper to do that.…”