Pete Sessions: “I will be interested in the Senator's pipeline safety bill. That is a matter that is important. The pipelines are so…”

“I will be interested in the Senator's pipeline safety bill. That is a matter that is important. The pipelines are so much safer than trucks and other forms of distribution of fossil fuel. We are moving toward the use of natural gas, which burns so much cleaner than coal, fossil fuel, and other fuels. I think we will be having more pipelines around the country. I think it will be essential. It will be a positive environmental step to move forward with it. I have been somewhat discouraged that the Vice President has indicated he opposes drilling for natural gas off the gulf coast where it can be done so much more safely than drilling for liquid gas. We have had very few problems of any kind drilling off the coast. In fact, it produces the cleanest burning fuel we have. We have the Vice President opposing nuclear power, and now we are shutting off our capacity to reach natural gas which we are now using to generate electricity at a fraction of the environmental pollutants that other forms of energy generate. We are reaching a point of boxing ourselves in. We are supposed to reach cleaner air goals under the Kyoto agreement. The President and Vice President say we should go forward, but we are boxing ourselves in. We need to maintain an efficient gas pipeline system in America to generate the energy for the needs we have while continuing to reduce pollutants in the atmosphere. It has to be safe, too. I am willing to look at that.”