Voting for American Energy and Job Creation

This week, the House will vote to clear the way for the Keystone XL pipeline. This pipeline will stretch from oil sands in Alberta, Canada to the Gulf Coast of Texas, which could bring greater energy security to America by supplying us with 830,000 barrels of oil a day. It is a private-sector project would create 140,000 new jobs. So what’s the hold up? Because the pipeline will cross the border between the U.S. and Canada, the company building it was required to apply to the State Department for approval. The President is unwilling to grant that approval because of pressure from environmental activists. However, the State Department has issued multiple scientific assessments that have concluded that Keystone XL will have “minimal environmental impact” and a “degree of safety greater than any typically constructed domestic oil pipeline.”

At a recent Science Committee hearing, I questioned the President’s science advisor about the delay in approving Keystone XL. You know what he told me? “I have not in fact had any conversations with the President at this point about the Keystone pipeline.” If the President is truly concerned about scientific environmental hazards, why hasn’t he talked to his science advisor about it? It’s because his delay on the Keystone Pipeline project is not based on science, but rather on partisan politics.

Nevertheless, Keystone XL has broad bipartisan support. That’s why I’m looking forward to getting this project moving by passing the Northern Route Approval Act this week. This bill will remove the requirement for a Presidential permit and help us get moving to increase our energy supply and create 140,000 new jobs.

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