Keystone XL Pipeline Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss my amendment that
was made pending by my friend and the ranking member of the Energy and
Natural Resources Committee, the Senator from Washington, Ms. Cantwell.

The amendment I have offered, amendment No. 55, is a simple,
commonsense amendment. It requires the Environmental Protection Agency
to complete a study on the potential environmental and health impact of
byproducts from tar sands oil that would be transported across our
country by the Keystone XL Pipeline.

One of these byproducts of tar sands oil is a black, powdery
substance known as petroleum coke or petcoke. It is a residual from
this tar sands oil and large amounts of it are produced in the refining
process.

In fact, it is estimated basically for every barrel of oil we get
from tar sands, one-third of the material is this dark substance called
petcoke. If we are transporting an awful lot of oil through the
Keystone Pipeline, it naturally follows that we are going to get
massive amounts of this petcoke.

I have had an experience with this petcoke in my previous House
district in the city of Detroit, where we had petcoke from the refining
process of this tar sands oil being piled up along the Detroit River.
We had a pile there that was at some times several stories high, a city
block long. It was stored along the river in an uncontained fashion. It
was blowing into people's homes, it was blowing into businesses, and it
was also draining into the Great Lakes watershed.

It caused all sorts of problems. I had complaints from constituents
who talked about this substance going into their homes. I had
businesses talking about--for example, restaurants in the area--their
wait staff getting respiratory problems as a result of breathing this
in.

In fact, we had a video to explain how problematic it can be. I had a
video taken by a Canadian resident across the Detroit River that showed
the petcoke piles. With some wind blowing, a massive black dust cloud
was blowing off of these petcoke piles. In the distance you could see
the Ambassador Bridge, which is the bridge that connects Canada to the
United States. The dust was so thick and so black it obscured the
bridge as it was blowing into the neighborhoods, into the river, and
then into Canada.

It is a completely unacceptable situation, which is why I believe it
is important as we move forward with this legislation that we have a
couple of studies.

One, we need to understand what are those environmental and health
risks associated with petcoke. It is clear this is particulate matter,
and if it is not contained, it gets into people's lungs and creates a
dust layer throughout communities.

It is very important as well in the study not only to study the
environmental and health impacts, but what are the best practices to
handle this material.

With the massive amount of tar sands oil that will come through the
Keystone, we will also get massive amounts of petcoke, a substance that
has been problematic not only in Detroit, but it has been problematic
in the city of Chicago and other places across the country.

So I believe it is very important that we get these kinds of
information as this project moves forward, and it is certainly my hope
that we can assure that what happened in Detroit, what is happening in
Chicago and other places across this country doesn't happen, that we
understand what this substance is, and we understand what those best
practices are to handle and to transport this material safely.

I urge my colleagues to support amendment No. 55.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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Mr. PETERS. Mr. President, as Michiganders, Senator Stabenow and I
know firsthand how important the Great Lakes are. The lakes are a vital
natural resource and an economic engine for our State, region, and the
entire country. Unfortunately, Michiganders also know firsthand the
environmental dangers and risks when it comes to pipeline leaks.

We had the worst inland pipeline leak in our Nation's history near
Kalamazoo, MI. Cleanup has taken over 4 years and has cost $1.2
billion. There is a 60-year-old pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac
where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron come together. I cannot even fathom
what would happen if there were an accident that contaminated the Great
Lakes. The results would be catastrophic not only for the Great Lakes
but also the entire country.

That is why we need to act now and act quickly, and I urge my
colleagues to support the Peters-Stabenow amendment.

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