Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2012, Part II
Floor Speech
The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4348) to provide an extension of Federal-aid highway, highway safety, motor carrier safety, transit, and other programs funded out of the Highway Trust Fund pending enactment of a multiyear law reauthorizing such programs, and for other purposes:
Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Chair, the transportation infrastructure needs of our nation are urgent and unprecedentedly large. Addressing those needs must be at the center of our economic recovery. This transportation bill does not address those needs. Instead, it forces approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which will undermine the recovery by driving up gas prices across the U.S., with the largest increases in Midwestern states like Ohio.
This is not just my conclusion. That is what TransCanada, the company that wants to build the Keystone XL Pipeline, told the Canadian government in its permit application. Canadian oil companies will be able to use the Keystone XL pipeline to increase America's fuel bill by up to 4 billion dollars per year, by reducing the supply of Canadian crude to Midwest refineries and by re-routing that crude around its current delivery point in Cushing, Oklahoma and on to Gulf Coast refineries.
Through manipulation of U.S. oil markets, the Keystone XL Pipeline will increase U.S. gas prices by 10 to 20 cents per gallon across the U.S., according to energy economist Philip Verleger. The greatest price increase will occur in 15 Midwest states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Wisconsin). Adding insult to financial injury, oil from the pipeline will be sold overseas instead of being used to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
The bill's $4 billion gift to the oil industry, which already gets tens of billions of dollars every year in subsidies, comes only one day after the President announced efforts to try to rein in gas prices and the excesses of the oil industry.
We should be considering either an unencumbered motion to go to conference or the Senate's transportation package, which passed with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 74 22.
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