WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Pat Roberts today took to the Senate floor joined by eleven of his Senate colleagues to express their deep disappointment in this Administration’s repeated delay of final approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.
The following are the Senator’s remarks as prepared for delivery:
“I rise today to join my fellow Republican colleagues to express our deep disappointment in this Administration’s repeated delay of final approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.
“And I am sure the irony is lost on no one, that while my friends on the other side continue to trot out messaging pieces on supposed government solutions to our high national unemployment rate; including emergency unemployment insurance, income inequality and the minimum wage, we have a project right before us waiting for approval that would create tens of thousands of jobs, and all without using one dime of taxpayer money.
“Yet many of my friends who are the staunchest opponents of this project have been down here proclaiming their support of government subsidies that are merely a bandage for Americans currently out of work, while a cure to the problem sits right in front of them.
“If you want an actual solution to unemployment, here it is. Providing eager Americans with a fulltime job making well over the national minimum wage sounds like a pretty good jobs package to me.
“Now regarding the pipeline’s environmental soundness, just last June, the President indicated that he would not grant final approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline if it would exasperate carbon emissions. Well, good news, Mr. President. The State Department has already indicated that construction of the pipeline will have no measureable impact on increasing global carbon emissions.
“So from an economic perspective, it’s a no brainer. And from scientific conclusions reached by this Administration’s own State Department regarding the environmental soundness of the project, it’s a no brainer.
“At the end of the day, the Canadian oil sands are going to be developed. The question is, will that oil be shipped overseas, will it be transported to the U.S. by rail, or will it travel by pipeline?
“So, despite the rhetoric coming from our friends on the extreme Left, construction of this pipeline isn’t going to further global warming. In fact, and please correct me if I’m wrong, but transporting oil via pipeline is the most environmentally sound way to do it.
“Lastly, and this plays into the larger discussion we are having about the escalating issues in the Middle East and Russia.
“Let’s send a strong message to the rest of the world that we are serious about energy security and hopefully willing to consider taking steps with our friends in Canada to start challenging nationally run oil cartels as to who can supply our friends with needed energy.
“Because while the larger energy discussion regarding situations unfolding across the ocean are focused mostly on liquid natural gas, Russia’s influence goes well beyond natural gas. Just look at our own data produced by the Energy Information Administration which shows that Russia is second only to Saudi Arabia in net exports of oil.
“So this is our opportunity to send an important message that the time of despotic governments wishing to wield power by controlling the flow of energy is coming to an end. Let’s allow this project to be the first step in, hopefully, many towards showing that we are serious as a government about achieving North American energy security.
“In closing, this project has been reviewed for over five years with five Environmental Impact Statements concluding it safe. This project makes sense economically, environmentally, and from a national security perspective. Let’s get this thing moving.
“Thank you again, Mr. President, and I yield the floor to my colleagues.”