Nick Rahall: “I'm offering this amendment on behalf of myself and Peter DeFazio of Oregon. This amendment simply strikes section 3 of…”

“I'm offering this amendment on behalf of myself and Peter DeFazio of Oregon. This amendment simply strikes section 3 of the bill. This is the section which states that the Keystone XL pipeline does not require a permit to cross the international border between Canada and the United States. Under this amendment, all other provisions of the bill remain intact, including those relating to judicial review, rights-of-way, and the Clean Water Act. I believe that getting into the business of waiving permits for a foreign company to do business here in the United States is not the way to facilitate the construction of this pipeline. American interests are at stake here, and to allow this extremely massive pipeline project to proceed without a permit is ludicrous. As I said in comments earlier today, we do not even do that for domestic companies here in this country. Section 3 also creates a very convoluted and confusing regime. It references a final Environmental Impact Statement issued on August 26, 2011, as satisfying NEPA for the project. Yet that EIS was done for a different permit application than the one currently pending. {time} 1640 I repeat: that EIS was done for a different permit application than the one that's currently pending. In February 2012 TransCanada split the project into two pieces--the northern route and the southern route.…”