Joe Manchin: “I thank the Senator. I very much appreciate this colloquy, which is basically just common sense. I became a Senator on…”

“I thank the Senator. I very much appreciate this colloquy, which is basically just common sense. I became a Senator on November 15, 2010, so I have been here a little over 4 years. That is when I was first brought to understand the Keystone project, which was underway at the time and trying to be built. I was asked the question: What do you think? I looked at it very quickly, and I looked at how much oil we buy from other countries around the world. We buy the same type of oil--750,000 barrels of oil a day--from Venezuela. I was thinking that I would rather buy from my friends rather than from my enemies--the people who take the proceeds and the profits from our buying their product and use it against us. I was very clear on that, and I think most West Virginians feel the way I do. Let's look at the facts. Forty percent of this pipeline has already been built. This is the part we are talking about, which has not been built and which we are producing and would like to build. The capacity from the Bakken--we talked about how 12 percent of the volume from this will be Bakken oil from North America. We are saying that we are moving and producing our oil, buying from our best, friendliest neighbor and ally, Canada, and it makes us more secure as a nation. I have heard all of the arguments against it. People have said that we can't do this because basically this oil will come straight down and go out.…”