[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 167 (Thursday, November 3, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7261-H7262]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      KEYSTONE XL/CANADA OIL SANDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Canadian oil sands transported via pipelines play a 
major role in supplying the energy needs of southern Illinois. Two 
weeks ago, I visited the oil sands in Alberta, Canada, and here is 
exactly what we saw.
  On Monday of this week, I visited three facilities also, but before I 
talk about those three facilities, Daniel Yergin yesterday in The 
Washington Post said this about the oil sands of Canada: ``Oil sands 
production in Canada today is 1.5 million barrels per day--more oil 
than Libya exported before its civil war. Canadian oil sands output 
could double to 3 million barrels per day by the beginning of the next 
decade. This increase, along with its other oil output, would make 
Canada a larger oil producer than Iran--becoming the world's fifth 
largest, behind Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and China.''
  On Monday of this week, I visited three facilities in southern 
Illinois that utilize Canadian oil sands: Robinson refinery, the Patoka 
tank farm, and the Wood River refinery.
  Pipelines play a vital role in providing the energy needs for our 
daily lives. There are over 2.5 million miles of pipelines in this 
country: 175,000 miles of onshore and offshore hazardous liquid 
pipelines, mostly oil; 321,000 miles of onshore/offshore gas 
transmission and gathering lines; and 2,066,000 miles of natural gas 
distribution mains and service pipelines.
  Keystone XL would stretch about 1,700 miles. Again, going back to 
Yergin's article, he says: ``Though large''--he's referring to the 
Keystone XL pipeline. ``Though large, it would increase the length of 
the oil pipeline network in the United States by just 1 percent.''
  Due to the high volumes of various liquids and gasses that must be 
transported, pipelines are the feasible mode of transportation. Imagine 
trying to transport this gas, crude oil on rail, on trucks, in our 
major waterways. In fact, just today there was a supertanker that was 
just hijacked by pirates on the high seas. That's the challenge of 
moving crude oil other than the pipeline system.
  We continue to import oil from countries that are not our closest 
friends. Further blocking of this pipeline development will only 
increase foreign oil imports from far-off places that are not our 
neighbors.

[[Page H7262]]

  This pipeline application is a jobs plan. Five major labor unions 
have endorsed this project, and there would be 20,000 construction 
jobs. As refineries expand, there's an estimated 100,000 new jobs as a 
whole. This Keystone XL pipeline is supported by the AFL-CIO and 
several other organized labor groups. In fact, they have started to run 
ads today in support of the pipeline and encouraging the Obama 
administration to approve it. Canadian oil sands are already creating 
jobs in my district in southern Illinois.
  Caterpillar, which my friend Joe Wilson is going to talk about too--
you'll see a larger mock than this. This is one of their major pickup 
trucks, lightly said. It's about four stories tall. The major place 
that this goes to is the oil sands in Canada. The tires, themselves, 
are two stories tall. The Caterpillar 797 is the largest truck they 
make. It's partially assembled in Decatur, Illinois. The truck is so 
large, final assembly must be done at the delivery site. The largest 
concentration of these Caterpillar trucks are in Alberta, Canada. These 
are manufactured in the good old U.S.A. These are great Midwestern 
manufacturing jobs that are directly tied to the oil sands development.
  At my last stop on Monday to the ConocoPhillips refinery, I just 
posed this basic question to the reporters who attended the press 
conference: Would you rather have the oil being refined in Wood River, 
Illinois, come from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, or 
Africa, or would you have that oil rather come from Canada? I think the 
answer is simple. So this administration must approve the Keystone XL 
pipeline.

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