Keystone Pipeline XL

Floor Speech

Mr. LATTA. Mr. Speaker, this is a very important hour tonight because we are talking about the security of this country, and we are talking about having a secure source of oil and energy into the future. And as Americans around the country know, it hasn't been too long, they just go out and look at what the gas pump says, and I know when I left Bowling Green, my hometown in Ohio this morning, gas was $3.49 a gallon. And you know, we only have to go back to January of '09 when President Obama took office and gasoline was $1.78. So we've seen a dramatic increase in the price of gasoline.

What we need to do is we need to talk not only about the security but where we are getting our oil from, because oil runs our manufacturing and it's very, very important. I serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee. And earlier this year, manufacturing jobs in this country on just our committee alone, on Energy and Commerce, we had 1,729,250 manufacturing jobs on our committee alone, according to National Manufacturers. Today, that number has dropped to 1,526,941, or a loss of 202,309 jobs in manufacturing.

And when I'm out talking to my folks in manufacturing, small and large, one of the things that really hits them is what the cost of energy is and where it's going to be coming from. And when we've got the problems over in the Middle East and with Iran, and there is a question as to whether we're going to have a secure source in that region of the world, it pushes up the price of energy, and it affects the jobs in this country.

But we have a unique opportunity in this country, and the President does. And what the President can do is to get this Keystone XL pipeline going; and we've urged him in committee, and we're urging him in Congress, to make that decision to get this going.

Let me just go through a few facts, if I may. First of all, a lot of people might not realize this, but the Canadians are the largest folks up there to the north to provide energy to us in the form of oil. We get 13 percent of our current U.S. energy, our oil needs come from Canada, and 23 percent of all U.S. petroleum imports come from Canada. A lot of people might think they come from over in the Middle East. They don't. They come from our friends up north, our good neighbors up north. Another statistic that I think is really important to point out is that when we send a dollar to Canada for Canadian products, we're getting 90 percent back from the Canadians on purchases they make of U.S. goods and services.

So it's a very, very great relationship that we have with the Canadians because it's a great relationship, our largest partner to the north, and when it comes to trading.

But Canada is only second to Saudi Arabia for proven recoverable oil reserves with over 170 billion barrels in the form of the oil sands--170 billion barrels. And, again, as the largest supplier of oil to the U.S., Canada provides consistency and stability with nearly 2 million barrels per day, which is currently more than, again, of the 20 percent of U.S. imports. And approximately 56 percent of all Canadian exports of oil to the U.S. flow into the northern Midwest region. That's Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Ninety-four percent of all those imports into the region come from Canada, and 76 percent of this oil is from the oil sands. Forty percent of all the oil refined in this region also comes from that area of the oil sands.

A report that was issued by the Canadian Energy Research Institute, the CERI, states that U.S. jobs supported by Canadian oil sands development could grow from 21,000 jobs today to 465,000 jobs by 2035. It's also important to note that we are looking at about 20,000 jobs right now, and another 100,000 jobs on ancillary if this pipeline gets approved and gets moving. So it's incumbent that the President takes action so we can get these jobs in the United States; but also, more importantly, along with those job is to make sure that we have a secure source of oil in this country.

2,400 American companies in 49 States are involved in development of Canadian oil sands. That's important, because it's just not the Canadians up there that are doing this. It's American companies, American jobs making sure that we have that stable source.

So when it comes right down to it, we need to have the President act immediately and favorably on this to get America moving on jobs, but also, at the same time, to make sure that we have a stable and a secure source of energy in this country.

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

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