Keystone XL Pipeline Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. I appreciate the Senator from California yielding for a
question, as I am listening to this debate and hearing from my
colleague, the Senator from Michigan, as to the importance of pipeline
safety, as we are now debating a very comprehensive bill to give
approval for one specific pipeline in this country, which I think is
very much an unprecedented type of vote in the Senate.

My question is: Why do we not have an opportunity, or would the
Senator not agree that we should have an opportunity, to offer
amendments? I know I am new to the Senate, but I was informed this
would be an open amendment process. My idea of an open amendment
process means you can actually offer amendments. It means you can also
actually debate amendments. That is an open process, particularly
something as important as protecting our Great Lakes, this incredible,
immense body of freshwater, one of the largest bodies of freshwater in
the world. We have a pipeline that goes through there, above the
lakebed, that could potentially be catastrophic if there is a break.

As Senator Stabenow mentioned, in Michigan we have already had the
most expensive pipeline break in history--4 years of cleanup of
Canadian tar sands oil, oil that sinks to the bottom of the river. It
is more expensive to clean up--over $1.2 billion in cleanup. So you can
imagine if we had a pipeline break in the middle of the Great Lakes. It
would be catastrophic to this country, it would be catastrophic to the
State of Michigan, but really catastrophic to the entire world. It is a
risk we cannot take.

That is why we have authored a commonsense amendment that says we
should ensure that there is adequate inspection, that PHMSA has the
resources they need in order to inspect this, and if there are special
requirements to protect the Great Lakes, as there were special
requirements for Keystone, it should also be available to other
pipelines, particularly in sensitive areas such as the Great Lakes.

That is why, in the spirit of an open amendment process, in the
spirit of this great deliberative body, where people are allowed to
debate the big issues affecting our world, I ask unanimous consent to
set aside the pending amendment so that I may call up my amendment No.
70.

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