Keystone XL Pipeline Safety

Floor Speech

Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, the State Department is in the process of determining whether it should grant a Presidential permit for the construction of TransCanada's Keystone XL Pipeline, which could deliver up to 900,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day from Alberta, Canada--over 2,000 miles--to refineries on the U.S. gulf coast.

The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline will put communities along its path at unnecessary risk by using conventional technology to carry a blend of raw tar sand oil called diluted bitumen. Diluted bitumen is more corrosive and more likely to cause pipeline leaks than conventional oil. Already the Keystone I Pipeline, which came online just 6 months ago, has experienced seven leaks, and that is for a pipeline that TransCanada claims is the ``safest ever built.''

Considering the significant dangers of piping bitumen, I find it troubling that the pipeline's route goes directly through the Ogallala Aquifer in the Midwest, which provides clean drinking and irrigation water to most of America's heartland. Despite the dangers of tar sands oil, U.S. regulators do not delineate between this new product and standard petroleum.

We need new regulations. We need to put on hold the planned tar sands pipeline Keystone XL.

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