Keystone XL Pipeline Act -- Veto

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, protecting the President's veto of the
Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Act is about protecting the review
process for this project. The President deserves to have all of the
input from the different agencies delivered to him so he can make his
decision.

Today in the vote that we will be having shortly, we are saying the
President should be able to exercise his prerogative to review the
pipeline and to decide whether it is in the national interest to have
this pipeline constructed through the United States of America. But we
are also protecting his prerogative to decide in the end, because this
is a pipeline that should be rejected on its merits.

The pipeline fails the test on job creation. After it is built, it
will only have 35 to 40 permanent jobs that the United States will have
on its soil. Meanwhile, we should be having a debate about the wind
production tax credit because if we extended that, we would keep 30,000
people working permanently here in the United States, as this wind
revolution continues to explode. Last year, there were 5,000 megawatts
of solar energy installed in the United States. That is like five huge
powerplants. This year 7,500 megawatts, at least, of solar are going to
be installed in the United States. And next year 10,000 megawatts, at
least, in solar are going to be installed. But that tax break is
expiring at the end of 2016. You would think there would be an urgency
here on the floor of the Senate to debate the wind tax break and the
solar tax break which will create upwards of 250,000 jobs in the United
States.

We already have 175,000 people working in the solar industry, but
there is no urgency to take up wind and solar. But a pipeline from
Canada taking the dirtiest oil in the world, tar sands--tar. Think
about that, tar. The tar has to be actually melted down so it can be
put into a pipeline. It is tar, the dirtiest oil in the world, and then
a pipeline like a straw through the United States of America, built
right down to Port Arthur, TX

What is so unique about Port Arthur, TX? I will tell you right now.
It is a tax-free export zone, and so there is the plan for the
Canadians--build a pipeline like a straw through the United States,
right down to a tax-free export zone, and then get that oil out of the
United States of America.

Why is that? I will tell you right now that the price for oil in the
United States is now $12 less than it is if you can get it out onto the
global market. Per barrel, $12 less. You don't have to go to Harvard
Business School to get a degree to put that business plan on a 3-by-5
card. Get it out of the United States, and you will make $12 a barrel
more.

The advocates for the pipeline say that is not going to happen. That
is why I made the amendment on the Senate floor. The oil will not be
exported. If we are going to take all of the environmental risks, then
we should receive the benefits of the oil being here in the United
States.

Why is that important? It is important for this reason: We are--the
United States is--the largest importer of oil in the world. China does
not import as much oil as we do. We are the leader. You might see these
ads on television where the American Petroleum Institute and other oil
companies advertise that with regard to what a great job we are doing
in producing more oil in the United States. And we are producing more
oil in the United States. Let's take note of that. The truth is we are
still 5 million barrels a day short. This pipeline will be moving maybe
800,000 barrels of oil from Canada right through the United States,
which could reduce our dependence upon imported oil, but it is going
through a tax-free export zone. So we know what is going to happen.

Why is that important? It is important because we export young men
and women in uniform every single day to the Middle East to protect the
ships with oil coming into the United States that we import from
Kuwait, from Saudi Arabia, from the other countries around the world.
So why would we be exporting oil out of the United States while we are
exporting young men and women in uniform out of America who then
protect oil coming back in from countries in the Middle East? That
makes no sense.

That is what this pipeline is all about. It is all about getting some
benefit for the United States. Climate change, big loser. It is the
dirtiest oil in the world. The Canadians actually escape paying the tax
in the event that there is an oilspill. They don't have to pay into
that fund, either, that American oil companies do. And then
notwithstanding their ads on television that say they are going to keep
the oil in the United States, they bitterly object to any provision
being voted here that keeps it in the United States while they run ads
on television saying North American energy independence, that is their
greatest goal.

You can't have it both ways. Life is not like that. Either your ads
are saying what your goal is, North American energy independence, or
you are going to export it. But you can't have it both ways, do one
thing on television and then another thing in real life and say to the
Senate, please don't put any restrictions on our ability to export this
oil. That is the challenge for us here.

By the way, one other thing. If we keep the oil here in the United
States, that is going to keep a pressure to keep the price of gasoline
lower, because the more oil we have here in the United States, the
lower the price of gasoline. Every time there is a 1-penny reduction in
the price of gasoline, it is $1 billion that goes into the pocket of
consumers in America. One penny equals a billion. So when the price of
oil, gasoline, drops 10 cents, that is $10 billion. When it drops $1,
that is $100 billion. It is down by $1. It is down by more than $1 over
where it was this time last year. That is a lot of money that goes as a
stimulus into the pockets of Americans who can spend it on other
things. But this oil is going out of the country, so the pressure it
would keep to help our manufacturers, to help our drivers, is not going
to exist. It fails on each one of these items: One, it gets exported.
Two, they don't pay their full taxes, or any at all, to the Oilspill
Liability Fund. We don't keep it here to keep the price lower for
American drivers. I understand the Canadians want to make the most
money by getting out of the open market. That hurts you. That hurts us.
That hurts our drivers. That is the challenge.

It fails each one of these tests. It fails on the climate change. It
fails on the export test because it goes overseas. It fails on the tax
issue. It fails on the process issue of trying to short-circuit the
President's prerogative to be able to consider this in a comprehensive
sense.

The President has correctly vetoed this bill. The President is
standing up for the American taxpayer, for the American consumer, for
the environment of the United States. He is asking the right questions.
He is doing the right things.

I urge my colleagues here on the Senate floor, within the next hour,
to vote to sustain the veto of President Obama on this policy which
does not advance the best interests of the United States of America.

I yield back the remainder of my time.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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