Keystone XL Pipeline Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, when the new Congress opens there is a
choice as to which issues we should start to work on. Would it be
infrastructure jobs, clean energy jobs, a minimum-wage increase for all
of America? No, no. That is not what the new majority decides to bring
up. No. Instead, it is a Canadian oil export pipeline.

Next week I am going to offer an amendment that the Senate will
consider to ask whether we will put Americans first or oil companies
first, whether we will keep this oil and gasoline here for Americans or
send it to foreign nations to help them instead.

If my amendment is defeated, it will make clear this is not an energy
plan that is ``all of the above,'' it is oil above all.

My amendment says that if we build the Keystone Pipeline, we keep
that oil here. We keep that gasoline here. We keep the diesel, the jet
fuel, the heating oil. We keep it all here, because if we send it
abroad, what are we doing? We are helping Canadian oil companies get a
higher price for their oil. We are acting as the middlemen between
dirty foreign oil and thirsty foreign markets.

Without my amendment, there is nothing in the bill or U.S. law that
would prevent this oil from being exported. Eighty percent of our
refined fuel exports go out of the gulf coast, exactly where Keystone
would end, and foreign crude oil--including crude oil from Canada--can
be freely reexported.

We know what TransCanada's plan is because I asked him at a
congressional hearing--a senior TransCanada official--whether he would
commit his company to keeping the oil and refined products from
Keystone in the United States of America, and he said no.

Why do the oil companies want to export this Canadian tar sands oil?
Because they can get a higher price and make more profit.

Tar sands crude in Canada trades for $13 less than the U.S. crude
benchmark. The international prices are $3 higher than our prices.

If we do all of this, if we build this pipeline and then we send this
oil to foreign countries, then we have turned Uncle Sam into ``Uncle
Sucker.'' Because, make no mistake, without my amendment this bill will
not do anything to help people at the pump. It will just serve to pump
up the profits for oil companies.

We shouldn't export in oil, even as we are forced to send young men
and women to defend oil interests in the most dangerous parts of the
world.

Let us have that debate. As we import--still--oil from the Middle
East, coming into the United States on tankers, this proposal we are
debating next week will actually export oil that is already in the
United States. We still import millions of barrels of oil every single
day.

What we hear from the Canadians, what we hear from the oil industry
is that this is all about energy independence. Energy independence
cannot, by definition, include the exportation of oil while the United
States of America is still importing millions of barrels of oil per
day. That is heading us away from, rather than toward, the goal of
energy independence.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is at the heart of the issue of what it
is that we must understand about this Keystone Pipeline debate. We want
lower prices for consumers, lower prices at the gasoline pump, lower
prices for home heating oil, lower prices for diesel, and lower prices
all across America. It is akin to a tax break that is going into the
pockets of every single American, giving them more spending money
because they are paying much less for oil in all of its forms in the
United States of America right now, and it is giving an incredible
incentive for economic growth in America.

What makes America great? What makes America strong? What makes us
strong is when we are strong at home. What makes us strong at home is
our economy, because the stronger our economy, the stronger the United
States is in projecting power across this planet.

That is why on this debate the exportation of oil is so central. It
goes right to the heart of what we must be discussing and debating in
our country. This is an incredible opportunity for our country.

Let's take it to the next step. The next step includes what is the
taxation on the Canadian oil. There is a loophole, believe it or not,
in the American Tax Code that allows tar sands oil from Canada--such as
that that would flow through the Keystone Pipeline--to not pay into the
Federal trust fund to respond to oilspills in the United States--
understand that?

Canadian oil, the dirtiest in the world, coming through the pipeline
that the Canadians want to build through the United States, in the
event of an oilspill, will not have paid into the oilspill liability
fund for oilspill accidents in the United States.

I wrote to the Treasury Department in 2012 urging them to close this
loophole through executive action, but their response indicated that
they do not believe they have the authority to close this loophole on
their own, and they need legislation to do so.

Yet there is nothing in this bill that would close this tax loophole
for Keystone tar sands oil. Tar sands oil can be more difficult to
clean up than regular crude but receives a ``get out of Canada tax-
free'' card. That makes absolutely no sense. We are already importing
more than 1.2 million barrels per day of tar sands oil into the United
States. But oil companies don't have to pay into our cleanup fund to
import that dirty oil.

There are roughly 30 oil companies importing tar sands crude into the
United States. If you are one of those 30 companies, you are getting a
great deal. But if you are one of the hundreds of other oil companies
out there that do pay into the oilspill trust fund, you should hate
this loophole, and the American people should hate that loophole as
well because the Canadians and their oil companies are not paying their fair share of the dues to be able to participate in our great American society. They want to build a
pipeline like a straw right through the middle of the United States,
send the dirtiest oil right down that straw, and if that straw breaks,
if there is a spill, the Canadians have not contributed to the oilspill
liability trust fund. Does that make any sense? Does that make any
sense? Of course it doesn't.

That is why this debate is so important. The Congressional Budget
Office says this is going to cost the United States of America hundreds
of millions of dollars because the Canadians escape their
responsibility of paying for the accidents. That is why Senator Wyden
and I are working here to make sure we have an ability to close this
loophole, and we are working with Senator Cantwell, the ranking member
on the committee. Along with Senator Cantwell, we are going to make
sure we have this important debate on the Senate floor.

I know Senator Cantwell was out here earlier today raising this
issue, highlighting this issue, pointing out how unfair and unjust it
is that the Canadians escape their responsibility to pay and that it is
just another giveaway to the oil industry that ensures this is nothing
more than a giveaway to those Canadian companies.

I say this on a day when it is being reported there are now 140,000
people in America employed in the solar industry--140,000. There is
another 50,000 employed in the wind industry--nearly 200,000 people
employed in industries that, for the most part, didn't really even
exist in a meaningful way 7 years ago. That is how quickly our own
domestic wind and solar industries have been developed--creating jobs
here in the United States, creating growth here in the United States,
creating opportunity here in the United States.

So this, colleagues, is really what we should be debating. But once
again, when the Republicans are in control, we do not debate all of the
above. We don't debate wind and solar and biomass and energy efficiency
and oil and gas and nuclear. The Republicans always make it one
subject, and that is oil above all, not all of the above.

So I am looking forward to this debate. It goes right to the heart of
the security of our country, the economy of our country, and the
environment of our country. This is the dirtiest oil in the world. This
oil is going to contribute dangerously to the warming of the planet.
Last year--2014--was the single warmest year ever recorded in the
history of the planet--2014. You don't have to be Dick Tracy to figure
out this is a problem that we are passing on to the next generations
without the debate this issue must have if we are going to discharge
our responsibilities to those next generations.

The Keystone Pipeline is the central opportunity we are going to have
to raise this issue of global warming, of the national security of our
country, of making our economy stronger, and of ensuring we discharge
our responsibility to the next generation.

Madam President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a
quorum.

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