[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Page 8710]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              OIL EXPORTS

  Ms. HEITKAMP. Mr. President, before I begin what has turned into my 
weekly discussion about the sacrifices of 198 North Dakotans who lost 
their lives in Vietnam, I wish to briefly mention and associate myself 
with the remarks of my great friend and tremendous colleague, Lisa 
Murkowski from Alaska, as she talks about oil exports.
  I will tell you this: There are very few issues we confront in the 
Senate where there is absolutely nothing on the negative equation. What 
do I mean by that? Changing this policy has hundreds of good ideas and 
good reasons, and there is absolutely no reason not to do it. As we 
continue to pursue fairness for the oil-and-gas-producing industry, 
allowing them to seek their market as we continue to pursue an 
opportunity for our consumers to experience lower oil and gas prices, 
as we kind of move forward with oil and gas policy, I think it is 
critically important that we understand and appreciate that in this 
arena, the effort is bipartisan, the effort is essential for energy 
security in our country, energy independence in our country, and energy 
security across the world.
  I applaud Senator Murkowski for taking on this issue. I believe that 
as she has said, this is the year it must get done. I look forward to 
our continuing efforts, our bipartisan efforts to move this along.

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