Randy Weber: “Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to me that our friends across the aisle say that we already have enough oil. It is also…”

“Mr. Speaker, it is interesting to me that our friends across the aisle say that we already have enough oil. It is also interesting that President Obama, when he--the gentleman from Georgia, Buddy Carter, mentioned the Keystone pipeline. It would have come into my district in Texas, 830,000 barrels of oil a day. That is what we are talking about refining on the Gulf Coast of Texas. If you transfer that to 18-wheelers, it is about 5,253 18-wheeler tankers on the road every day. The pipeline is the best way to do this. Mr. Speaker, in Texas, we understand better than anyone else that America's energy strength depends on what happens to the oil after it comes out of the ground. The Keystone pipeline is a good example. Mr. Speaker, it is our refineries, the men and women who run them, and the communities built around those businesses that turn our resources into fuels and products that power everyday life. The REFINER Act takes on a question that Washington has ignored for far too long: Are we doing enough to protect and expand America's ability to refine the energy we produce? Right now, unfortunately, the answer is no, we are not. Over the last several years, America's refining capacity has gone backward. We have lost more than a million barrels of capacity per day, and several facilities have shut down altogether.”