On the recordFebruary 15, 2012
The language that we're discussing at this current time is allowing the Keystone pipeline a path forward. It's based on a bill I introduced back in September, which is H.R. 3548. Keep in mind that the President of the United States killed the Keystone pipeline. We think that was kowtowing to the environmental extremists, some of which may be in the House of Representatives, or represented here today. But the reality is that it was a wrong decision. It is in the best interests of our Nation to have the Keystone pipeline bringing oil from Alberta oil sands into the United States, where it can be refined and used in the United States, offsetting imported oil from Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. Keystone pipeline would take these supplies from Canada and use them in the United States, creating tens of thousands of jobs over a 2-year to 2\1/2\ year construction phase with permanent jobs thereafter to maintain the pipeline and its hubs along the 1,700-mile pipeline. Now, as far as the environmental objections to the project are concerned, I wish more people would have read the administration's own final environmental impact study. It found that not building the Keystone XL would lead to more oil being transported by riskier means, such as tankers, trains, and trucks. For this reason, the administration's folks concluded that the building of the pipeline is environmentally preferable to not building the pipeline and that its route was safe.…
