[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 1822]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE SAFETY

  (Mr. COHEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, the State Department is in the process of 
determining whether it should grant a Presidential permit for the 
construction of TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline, which could deliver 
up to 900,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day from Alberta, Canada--over 
2,000 miles--to refineries on the U.S. gulf coast.
  The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline will put communities along its path 
at unnecessary risk by using conventional technology to carry a blend 
of raw tar sand oil called diluted bitumen. Diluted bitumen is more 
corrosive and more likely to cause pipeline leaks than conventional 
oil. Already the Keystone I Pipeline, which came online just 6 months 
ago, has experienced seven leaks, and that is for a pipeline that 
TransCanada claims is the ``safest ever built.''
  Considering the significant dangers of piping bitumen, I find it 
troubling that the pipeline's route goes directly through the Ogallala 
Aquifer in the Midwest, which provides clean drinking and irrigation 
water to most of America's heartland. Despite the dangers of tar sands 
oil, U.S. regulators do not delineate between this new product and 
standard petroleum.
  We need new regulations. We need to put on hold the planned tar sands 
pipeline Keystone XL.

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