Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, H.R. 7073, the Next Generation Pipelines Research and Development Act. I introduced this important piece of legislation earlier this year to direct the Department of Energy toward a new and more modern approach to pipeline research and development. The chairman talked about over 2 million something miles of pipelines in the United States. Well, I am from the great State of Texas, which has over half a million miles of gas and liquid pipelines, so that is about a fourth of the whole pipelines in the United States if my high school math is holding up. This creates $374 billion, with a b, in total economic output for my State. That is because pipelines deliver oil and gas safely, reliably, and efficiently. However, as the chairman mentioned, half of all U.S. pipelines are over 60 years old, so we can expect defects and anomalies to occur more often. It is just a fact of the wear and tear they are under. Imagine driving a car that was over 60 years old, and yet it had never been tended to, which is unbelievable. Now, that is not to say that pipelines are dangerous, Mr. Speaker. Actually, the truth is quite the opposite, as pipelines safely deliver oil and gas without incident--check these numbers out--24/7, 99.999 percent of the time. That is a pretty good safety record, Mr. Speaker.…”