Keystone XL Pipeline Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. If I may speak briefly on the amendment, I thank the chair of the energy committee. I thank her for her courtesy and the Senator from Ohio as well.

While we will not be having the full debate at this time on the Senate floor, we are in fact beginning with a critical issue, an issue that relates to climate change, American energy independence, the impact that legislation can have upon consumers--drivers in our country in terms of how much they are paying at the pump.

It deals with actually the mission of young men and women in our country who go overseas in order to protect tankers of oil that are brought back to our country.

So the first question that will be asked in this debate is whether the oil, which is going to be delivered through this pipeline from Canada, is going to stay in the United States of America.

The Canadian tar sands oil is the dirtiest oil in the world.

The pipeline, similar to a straw, is going to be built through the United States down to Port Arthur, TX, a tax-free export zone. You don't have to have an MBA from business school to figure out what this 3-by-5 card looks like.

It is something that basically says, since the price of a barrel of oil on the global market is $17 higher than what the Canadians can get for the tar sands oil--that they want to get it out of the country, which is why it is going to end in Port Arthur, TX, an export zone.

What the amendment I am going to be making on the floor of the Senate says is that if the oil is drilled for in Canada, put through a pipeline in the United States, that oil cannot be exported, that oil stays in the United States, and that the promise of energy independence in our country is in fact what this agenda is all about. Because otherwise the United States is taking all of these environmental risks, the planet is taking all of these environmental risks, but the economic benefits are not flowing to consumers, drivers in the United States who finally feel some relief at the pump--that they are not feeling--that they are being tipped upside down and having money shaken out of their pockets on a daily basis.

The oil companies have made many claims about this pipeline. They have said it was for North American energy security, but it is about exporting oil. They have said it is about reducing prices, but it is about getting the highest profits. They said it would not harm the environment but it in fact will worsen climate change and risk dangerous oilspills.

They have been trying for 6 years to get this pipeline built, even when it is clear that we do not need it. So this is the Keystone ``export'' pipeline--the KXL.

So this first amendment that we will be debating is one that says: No, you cannot export it. We must keep that oil in the United States. We must ensure that it is in fact something that benefits the American people. Otherwise, the Canadians are just ripping this oil, this dirty oil from their soil in Canada and putting it into a pipeline that then will be exported, which will only ensure that the planet gets hotter, that it becomes more dangerous for future generations.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a very important debate. The planet is running a fever. There are no emergency rooms for planets. We have to engage in preventive care.

If this action takes place, and all we are doing is allowing Canadian oil to go through our country and out the other end, then we haven't done anything for the American consumer or for the planet.

I look forward to a more complete debate on this issue, and I yield back the remainder of my time.

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