North American-Made Energy Security Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Let's connect the dots here. The Koch brothers, who financed the election of 2010, won. And they won big time. They own a facility up in Canada that will be the place where the tar sands oil will be converted into a form that can then be shipped to the gulf coast by this pipeline. All that money that they put in, millions and millions of dollars into the last election, is coming back as a return on the investment. And it's a big return, ladies and gentlemen.
This pipeline is going to cost $13 billion. Who's paying for it? The Koch brothers? No, not the Koch brothers. The American people are on the hook for the $13 billion to build this pipeline for the Koch brothers and for their cohorts ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, and all of the rest of the big boys whose tax credits and tax breaks they are protecting without hesitation.
So they're getting it both ways, ladies and gentlemen. They're getting it on the front end, and they're getting it on the back end in terms of not having to pay any taxes.
I think we need to look at during this debt ceiling debate what our priorities are as a Nation and what our values are. Are we simply there to do the bidding of Big Business and the oil companies, or are we here to do the business for the American people?
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Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Madam Chairman, today I rise in support of H.R. 1938, the North American-Made Energy Security Act.
For far too long, the proposed Keystone XL pipeline has been caught up in bureaucratic red tape that unfortunately has become the norm with this administration. This legislation simply forces the administration to make a decision by November 1 of this year, which will be more than 3 years after the application was originally submitted. This bill addresses our Nation's dependence on OPEC for oil, but it also creates American jobs.
The pipeline extension would allow for an additional 700,000 barrels of oil per day to be brought to the U.S. marketplace. This increase in oil, from America's largest trading partner, would begin to make America less beholden to unstable OPEC countries for our oil demands. Furthermore, if this pipeline isn't built, the oil will simply go to China instead of coming to America.
This legislation would also pave the way for the creation of 13,000 direct
jobs and tens of thousands of indirect jobs should the project be approved.
I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation.
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