North American Energy Infrastructure Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHNEIDER. Madam Speaker, this is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage, as amended.

Madam Speaker, this amendment would ensure that our Great Lakes and the Ogallala Aquifer, and the tremendous economic benefits that come from them, will remain protected and safe from toxic chemicals.

As stewards of the health and safety of our communities, we should take sensible approaches to protect our most valuable assets. This amendment would safeguard our drinking water in 16 States for millions of our constituents--in Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas.

The Great Lakes provide 56 billion gallons of fresh water per day for agriculture, municipal drinking water, and electricity production. Over 30 million Americans rely on the Great Lakes every day for their safe and clean drinking water.

This amendment would protect the Great Lakes from being put at risk by preventing the Department of State from approving projects that have the potential to contaminate the Great Lakes and their aquifers.

We owe it to our future generations to keep the Great Lakes healthy and to use the resources we have in a responsible and sustainable way.

This amendment also ensures that the owners and operators of pipelines who have been responsible for major spills in the past that resulted in contaminated community drinking water supplies will not receive special treatment to build additional pipelines across our borders.

When accidents occur in our Great Lakes, it is not a simple fix to restore the ecosystem and return to business as usual. The time it takes our Great Lakes to naturally rid themselves of pollutants can take up to 191 years. This is why we must take every precaution now to make sure that the health of our Great Lakes and the health of our economy are not put at risk for short-term gains.

Energy independence remains one of the primary drivers of our economy and will continue to have a major role in our future competitiveness and the health of our future generations. By eliminating commonsense environmental regulations and evaluations for projects with potentially massive public health consequences, it is a dereliction of our duty to protect our families, protect our communities, and protect our businesses that rely on the Great Lakes.

Instead of assessing the impact of the full project, the underlying bill would limit environmental review for new infrastructure projects to only the cross-border sections. We live in an interconnected environment, and the Great Lakes system is not an isolated resource but, rather, a complex ecosystem intertwined with the health and vibrancy of countless communities across two countries and eight States. What happens to one has an impact on all.

This amendment would ensure the proper planning and environmental impact evaluations are complete and that the total scope of projects are known and assessed.

The Great Lakes represents more than 1,000 miles of border between the United States and Canada. It is irresponsible to take on all the environmental risks to our drinking water, our $4 billion fishing industry, and the 200 million tons of shipping that occur on the Great Lakes, including 90 percent of the Nation's iron ore and 58 percent of the automobiles produced here.

It is irresponsible to put at risk the millions of Americans who rely on the Great Lakes and the Ogallala Aquifer for their basic human needs. It is irresponsible to take on the risk of chemical and toxic contaminants permanently changing our environment for the worst without doing our own due diligence.

For all Great Lakes and Great Plains communities, I ask that you take this commonsense step with us to protect our safe access to clean drinking water and to deny companies who have a track record of contamination from being given the opportunity to do so again.

With that, Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source