Keystone XL Pipeline Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. MARKEY. I thank the Senator. I thank the Senator for taking the
time to have this very important discussion in the Senate this
afternoon.
This past Thursday night the majority leader decided they would not
allow for a debate on an amendment I was propounding that would have
imposed a tax on the Canadian oil as it is being transported through
this proposed pipeline. In the eventuality of an oilspill, the
Canadians would have to have contributed to.
The majority did not make it possible for me to speak for even 1
minute on ensuring that the Canadians had to pay the tax in the event
there was an oilspill with their oil in the United States of America,
while Americans would have to do so.
This is the question I am going to propound to the Senator from
California. Right now we know that there is increasing carbon pollution
in the atmosphere, which stacks the decks, increasing the chances that
our country, our planet would draw an extreme weather joker that would
have catastrophic consequences for our country or for any other place
in the world. We know that while no one storm can be attributed to
climate change, scientists agree there is an increase in the intensity
and the frequency of extreme weather events. In fact, in the 2013
consensus report bulletin of the American Meteorological Society said:
``The number of severe regional snowstorms that occurred since 1960 was
more than twice the number that occurred during the preceding 60
years'' in the United States of America. So my question to the Senator
from California is: Shouldn't we be debating this issue of increased
frequency of snowstorms, of rain storms, of droughts, of extreme
weather conditions? And isn't this something that Members should be
allowed 1 minute, at least, to address, if not a full debate of these
issues that have been triggered by the Republicans deciding they wanted
to bring this bill onto the floor as their No. 1 priority for the year
2015? Is that not the subject we should be discussing and should it not
be an open debate?
That is the question I propound to the Senator from California.
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