MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Keystone XL Pipeline
Interview
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SCHULTZ: OK. All right, Jane Kleeb, I stand with you on this. I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you so much.
I want to bring in Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois. Well, Congresswoman, can Congress influence the president to say no to this project?
REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY, (D) ILLINOIS: Well, I`m glad you asked me that because tomorrow is the last day for comments about this pipeline, public comments.
So, yes, Congress can weigh in. I certainly have weighed in. But the public has until tomorrow. So, Ed, all those people that you`re convincing to take their heads out of those tar sands can sit down and write a letter and tell the administration that they don`t want to see that pipeline. I would hope that people in Mayflower, Arkansas for example, it`s almost a year since the pipeline spill in their community and there`s been hundreds of them around the country will also take the time to write and say that,
"No, this is not a good idea."
SCHULTZ: Do you have the sense of where the president is going to come down on this?
SCHAKOWSKY: Well, I think we still have time to influence the president. And by the way, in the Summit, today Senator Whitehouse and Senator Boxer just wrote a letter asking for a health study because now there seems to be evidence showing the downwind from where these -- the tar sands are, that extracting the oil that there`s mercury and carcinogens, cancer causing agents in the air.
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
SCHAKOWSKY: And actually a higher rate of cancer. So that`s another problem.
SCHULTZ: Are stability -- does our energy stability does not -- is not going to be determined by this pipeline?
SCHAKOWSKY: Absolutely not.
SCHULTZ: And it would be a generational statement to say no would it not?
SCHAKOWSKY: Well, look, absolutely no because we have no assurance at all whether or not any of that oil that would be refined in the southern part of the United States whether that would stay in the United States or go right out into exports. When we ask the head of TransCanada, could you guarantee that that oil will stay in the United States? He said no, he couldn`t, he wouldn`t. So ...
SCHULTZ: Congressman, yeah, this is going to be a fight. I expect the Democrats who care about the environment to stand up and say no to this, and say, tell the president to say no. It`s going to -- I think it`s going to take a real statement from elected officials in the body to let the president know exactly where they stand on this. Not just a few in the House and a few over on the Senate side. I think there really has to be
push if we`re serious, if we`re serious about the future and the next generation.
Congressman Jan Schakowsky ...
SCHAKOWSKY: Thank you.
SCHULTZ: ... thank you so much for joining us tonight.
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