Huffman Speaks Out Against Keystone XL Pipeline

May 22, 2013

WASHINGTON­—Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) today spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives against a bill that would expedite the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

“This House is considering a bill to cut corners for a foreign corporation to transport dirty fuel and raise gas prices for Americans,” Congressman Huffman said. “This bill, colleagues, is a betrayal of our priorities as members of the United States Congress.”

Footage of Congressman Huffman’s speech may be found HERE:

[[{"fid":"257","view_mode":"full","type":"media","attributes":{"alt":"Rep. Huffman Speaks Out Against the Keystone XL Pipeline","class":"media-element file-full"}}]]

Congressman Huffman’s full remarks are below:

Floor Statement of Congressman Jared Huffman

May 22, 2013

What a wonderful bill—if you happen to be the Canadian oil company that reaps all the benefits. But it comes at the expense of the American economy and the global environment. We should reject this bill out of hand.

This sweetheart bill approves the northern route of the Keystone XL pipeline and exempts it from the rigorous public analysis and scientific standards that American companies are held to, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, among others.

Bear in mind that Tar Sands oil is already exempt from paying into the trust fund that covers oil spill cleanup. So with this bill, my colleagues are saying we should have no front-end environmental protection for this project—and no backstop funding for when things go wrong. And things will go wrong. You just have to look at what happened at the Mayflower, Arkansas spill just last a month ago. When that happens, American taxpayers are going to be on the hook for cleanup, and where is the offset for that?

Meanwhile, TransCanada, the Canadian corporation proposing to build this pipeline, is on record before the Canadian Energy Board saying that this project would increase the price of oil in the United States.

So let’s be very clear about what we’re doing: this House is considering a bill to cut corners for a foreign corporation to transport dirty fuel and raise gas prices for Americans.

Why would we spend our time on this?

Well, we're told that it’s about jobs. But, the fact is, we don’t even know how many jobs this pipeline project will create. The estimates are all over the map.

If you can believe FOX News, which says it will create a million jobs, or TransCanada which says around 13,000 construction jobs, or the State Department, which says it will directly create fewer than 4,000 jobs—and less than three dozen of those will be permanent jobs.

We don’t even know the massive security risks and security costs that this project will foist upon the American taxpayers. At a minimum we should approve the Connolly amendment to at the very least generate a threat assessment if this bill is to move forward.

This bill, colleagues, is a betrayal of our priorities as members of the United States Congress.

With that I yield back.

###