Keystone XL Pipeline Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I appreciate the opportunity to respond to
my esteemed colleague from the State of Illinois.
Of course the answer to the question is that in fact it is a
regulated substance, and it is primarily regulated at the State and
local level.
In the State of Illinois, for example, petcoke would be regulated by
the State of Illinois. What I understand the Senator from Illinois to
be saying is that he is dissatisfied with the way the State of Illinois
has chosen to regulate petcoke.
But in fact the EPA has found that petcoke has a low hazard
potential. According to the Congressional Research Service, most
toxicity analysis of petcoke, as referenced by EPA, finds it has low
health hazard potential in humans, has no observed carcinogenic,
reproductive or developmental effects. In fact, it is a byproduct of
not just oil from the oil sands but also some of the oils from
California, Venezuela, and other places.
So it is a byproduct that in fact is recycled. It is used in products
such as aluminum, steel, paint. It is used to produce electricity.
Here is a case of a product that actually can be and is in fact
recycled. I would argue that what we want to do as we produce energy is
continue to invest in these new technologies that will help us produce
more energy but also do it with better environmental stewardship, which
means we not only work on CCS, carbon capture and storage--which is a
major undertaking in the oil sands right now; and I would be willing to
engage in that discussion as well--but then also work to find uses for
these byproducts in things such as steel and aluminum.
For example, the President last night talked about how the auto
industry is making a resurgence, and he talked about the CAFE
standards. One of the things they are doing in Detroit with new
automobiles is they are using more aluminum in the construction of the
cars to reduce the weight to try to meet those CAFE standards.
So here is a product from the oil sands oil that is actually used in
aluminum to make those vehicles lighter to achieve one of the things
the President talked about in the State of the Union Address last night
as a byproduct from the oil sands oil.
So I appreciate the question and look forward to further dialogue.
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Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, the characterizations of petcoke are from
the EPA and from the Congressional Research Service.
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