Political Quotes

“Let me just say to my colleague from North Dakota that we would like to have more North Dakota energy in South Dakota, of course, and have the direct benefit of that, but we focus in our State on jobs, and that is what this is all about--jobs, jobs, jobs. The President's own State Department says that this project would support 42,000 jobs--16,100 direct jobs including construction, and another 26,000 jobs that would be from indirect spending. That is not us. That is not the Senator from North Dakota, the Senator from Texas, the Senator from Oklahoma or the Senator from Missouri on this side saying it would create jobs. That is the President's own State Department saying it would create jobs and $2 billion in earnings--a $3.4 billion contribution to the U.S. economy. When you think about the States that are impacted--the State of North Dakota directly and my State of South Dakota would be traversed by the pipeline--we have a lot of local and State governments that would benefit from this. They say in the first year of operations it would generate $55.6 million of tax revenue, $17.9 million in my State of South Dakota. When you talk about what that can do in terms of infrastructure, what it can do in terms of providing revenue to build schools, public services, those sorts of things, it takes the pressure off the local property tax owners, area ranchers, homeowners, and businesses. That is another impact.…”