On the recordJanuary 17, 2012
I want to go back to something that Mr. Scalise said, which I think gets to the heart of the issues that we are talking about. And I would like to highlight this with our colleagues. Mr. Scalise, who knows this issue so very well because he is from Louisiana, he has constituents who work in this industry every day. He said, what the President had done was to choose, to make a conscious decision to push off making a definitive pronouncement on the Keystone pipeline. Mr. Speaker, I think that is so important. And what Mr. Scalise is saying gets to the heart of this. The President made that decision. Usually--and Mr. Scalise can illuminate us on this issue a bit--but it is my understanding that, generally, a Presidential permit requires anywhere from 18 to 24 months to secure, and that currently the Keystone pipeline is in its 40th month of trying to get a permit from this administration, from the President; and that if the President has his way on this, he is going to push that, and it would be another 12 months.
