Northern Route Approval Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Chairman, we are privileged to be Members of the single legislative body in the entire world that has the greatest opportunity to actually address the biggest challenge humankind has ever faced: the warming of our tiny planet and the devastating consequences that will follow.

I'm not asking anyone to agree that humans are the cause. I'm only asking that, regardless of the cause, adding more carbon to the atmosphere does put our lifestyles and, ultimately, the lives of generations at peril. No one will view this notion as radical in the near future, and we will all be judged.

We can choose now to shift toward cleaner fuel sources that will make our country forever energy independent, or we can continue to leave American consumers subject to unpredictable oil prices and severe public health and climate change. Our atmosphere can only absorb about 565 gigatons more of carbon dioxide before global temperatures rise 2 degrees Celsius. If that happens, the planet faces catastrophic consequences. Keystone XL would push us toward that cliff.

TransCanada's application is to run a pipeline filled with the dirtiest oil through the middle of our country, refine it, and then export it on the world OPEC market. Even those who support the pipeline should agree to examine the consequences of its construction. This bill would prevent that from even happening.

I ask my colleagues to take your heads out of the tar sands and let's all work together to collaboratively address the crises that we face. We can meet our energy and environmental challenges together.

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