Joe Manchin: “I say to the Senator, he is absolutely correct. I thank him for this opportunity not only to work with him but also to…”

“I say to the Senator, he is absolutely correct. I thank him for this opportunity not only to work with him but also to bring the facts forward. We have heard many times: We are all entitled to our own opinions, we are just not entitled to our own facts. If you start looking at what we are consuming today in America, at last count 7 million barrels of crude oil is purchased every day in America from other countries--7 million barrels of crude a day. So this line would possibly furnish 830,000 barrels of that dependency that we have. Let's look and see where it comes from right now. Mr. President, 2.5 million barrels we are already purchasing from Canada--our best, greatest ally we could possibly have; the best trading partner and the No. 1 trading partner that 35 of the 50 States have. So it is not an unknown there. But let's look at where we are purchasing some of the rest of the oil from. We purchase 755,000 barrels of heavy crude a day from Venezuela. Let's look at Venezuela, where it is an authoritarian regime. It impoverishes its citizens. It violates their human rights. It shows its willingness to put down political protests with horrific violence. We also purchase 1.3 million barrels a day from Saudi Arabia. We all have our concerns about Saudi Arabia and a lot of the money we follow goes into the wrong hands. Forty-two thousand barrels a day from Russia--from Russia. We know their intent and what they have been doing with their energy policy.…”