[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 113 (Tuesday, July 26, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H5494]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, delay, delay, delay is the 
administration's energy plan. The Keystone XL pipeline project would 
bring 700,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta, Canada, to refineries 
in southeast Texas. This would provide more energy for America.
  The President has had over 2 years to approve the project, but the 
State Department, the EPA, and out-of-towners have stonewalled the 
project on alleged environmental grounds.
  Pipelines are the most cost-effective and more environmentally sound 
ways to transport oil and natural gas. Oil must reach our refineries 
somehow. We can either import oil from a safe, reliable pipeline from 
our neighbors or on risky tankers coming from unstable Middle Eastern 
countries. Even the EPA should be able to figure this out after 2 years 
of delay, delay, delay.
  Our neighbors in Canada have developed a safe way to obtain crude oil 
from their oil sands. Unlike many of the countries in the world, the 
Canadians are concerned about environmental issues in crude oil 
production. They will sell us their crude oil. It will be piped to 
refineries in my district in southeast Texas and will be refined into 
energy and byproducts of crude oil. And it will create jobs in America.
  If the White House fails to act, the Canadians will take their oil 
someplace else. The Chinese are interested in buying that oil, so it's 
going to be used and it will go to China. Why not let it come to 
America?
  Some environmental extremists are against the project. Of course they 
are. They are against every type of energy that comes from below the 
ground. But they have no answers for our energy needs. They say they 
want green energy. Well, I do too, but there isn't sufficient green 
energy yet to run America. So they're against everything, it seems, 
except those curly CFL light bulbs that come from China. They're all in 
favor of those.
  The radicals are against nuclear energy because, well, the Japanese 
had an earthquake that caused reactors to overheat, so no more nuclear 
energy.

                              {time}  1010

  They are against natural gas because they don't like fracking, even 
though safe fracking has been around for decades and they don't even 
understand what fracking does.
  They don't want America to use coal even though our resources are 
abundant and new technologies have made clean coal safer and more 
efficient.
  They don't like wind turbines because running turbines at night in 
west Texas may bother the flight pattern of bats.
  They don't want more offshore drilling; certainly can't have that. 
And, of course, they are against domestic crude oil anyway because they 
hate American oil companies.
  So what's the answer? Well, the only White House plan that has been 
offered is to give American money to Brazil so Brazil can drill off its 
shores and then America will buy their crude oil. But no more offshore 
drilling for us it seems.
  If we're going to buy crude oil from foreign countries, let's buy it 
from our neighbor, our ally, Canada. Or do the progressives prefer we 
keep buying crude oil from dictators like Chavez in Venezuela or 
continue to be held hostage by the monopoly of OPEC and Middle Eastern 
countries? Or do they just want us to do without energy altogether?
  Meanwhile, gasoline is around $4 a gallon. So it seems to me the 
progressives, if they get their way, will have no progress in energy 
self-reliance, and we'll regress and go back to the horse and buggy 
days. But whoa, wait a minute, Mr. Speaker, we can't go back to using 
horses because they, too, cause pollution.
  Mr. President, approve the pipeline. Show some leadership. Time to 
start making progress on taking care of America's energy needs.
  And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________