[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2657]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE AND COAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from West 
Virginia (Mr. Mooney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, with his veto of the 
Keystone XL pipeline, the President has again decided to stand with 
radical environmentalists at the expense of the American people. 
Republicans and Democrats came together in both Houses of Congress to 
pass this commonsense bill, yet the President has seen fit to deny the 
American people the new jobs it would create.
  The President has a demonstrated record of picking favorites in the 
energy industry. We all remember how the President steered billions in 
taxpayer dollars to Solyndra, only to see the flawed solar company 
collapse.
  In 2014 alone, the Department of Energy directed over $1.9 billion in 
taxpayer dollars to investments in alternative energy. At the same 
time, the President has waged war on West Virginia energy jobs. This 
year, the administration is expected to ratchet up that war with new 
ozone standards and a new stream buffer zone rule. These overreaching 
regulations are intentionally designed to kill coal, with devastating 
outcomes for West Virginia and our entire Nation.
  Coal supplies over 90 percent of energy consumed in West Virginia. An 
escalation of the President's war on coal would cause families in West 
Virginia to see huge increases in their home energy prices. The 
escalation would also have a terrible impact on jobs in our State. The 
American Mining Association has projected that the new stream buffer 
zone regulation would destroy as many as 85,000 jobs in the Appalachian 
region.
  The administration has also held up permitting for natural gas 
exports and proposed damaging regulations on the exploration of new 
natural gas deposits. The Keystone veto further confirms the 
President's commitment to continuing his obstructionist agenda.
  With so much at stake for West Virginia families, we must strengthen 
our resolve like never before to fight for an energy policy which 
allows the free market and consumers to choose, not government to 
discriminate.

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