[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 57 (Thursday, April 19, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E602]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         SURFACE TRANSPORTATION EXTENSION ACT OF 2012, PART II

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                               speech of

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 18, 2012

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4348) to 
     provide an extension of Federal-aid highway, highway safety, 
     motor carrier safety, transit, and other programs funded out 
     of the Highway Trust Fund pending enactment of a multiyear 
     law reauthorizing such programs, and for other purposes:

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Chair, the transportation infrastructure needs of 
our nation are urgent and unprecedentedly large. Addressing those needs 
must be at the center of our economic recovery. This transportation 
bill does not address those needs. Instead, it forces approval of the 
Keystone XL Pipeline, which will undermine the recovery by driving up 
gas prices across the U.S., with the largest increases in Midwestern 
states like Ohio.
  This is not just my conclusion. That is what TransCanada, the company 
that wants to build the Keystone XL Pipeline, told the Canadian 
government in its permit application. Canadian oil companies will be 
able to use the Keystone XL pipeline to increase America's fuel bill by 
up to 4 billion dollars per year, by reducing the supply of Canadian 
crude to Midwest refineries and by re-routing that crude around its 
current delivery point in Cushing, Oklahoma and on to Gulf Coast 
refineries.
  Through manipulation of U.S. oil markets, the Keystone XL Pipeline 
will increase U.S. gas prices by 10 to 20 cents per gallon across the 
U.S., according to energy economist Philip Verleger. The greatest price 
increase will occur in 15 Midwest states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, 
Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North 
Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin). Adding 
insult to financial injury, oil from the pipeline will be sold overseas 
instead of being used to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
  The bill's $4 billion gift to the oil industry, which already gets 
tens of billions of dollars every year in subsidies, comes only one day 
after the President announced efforts to try to rein in gas prices and 
the excesses of the oil industry.
  We should be considering either an unencumbered motion to go to 
conference or the Senate's transportation package, which passed with an 
overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 74 22.

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