Dear Friend,
On Friday, the House will vote on H.R. 3, the Keystone XL Pipeline Act. This legislation would approve construction of the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline that would stretch from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
It has been six years since the pipeline application was first submitted for approval to the State Department. Since then, the project has undergone five separate environmental reviews, totaling over 222,000 pages, which have shown that the pipeline would be environmentally safe and good for the economy. The latest environmental review, which was released in January 2014, concluded that the project would not increase carbon emissions and confirmed that the construction of the pipeline would support approximately 42,000 jobs.
However, President Obama has refused to act, despite the positive findings in numerous studies and the broad bipartisan support for the pipeline. Because the president will not act, the House will again pass legislation to approve the pipeline. The Senate, with the new Republican majority, is expected to swiftly pass the legislation as well.
Unfortunately, President Obama has said he will veto the bill to allow for the State Department’s multi-year review of the pipeline to continue. This is just another stalling tactic to delay making a final decision on the pipeline, especially in light of all of the previous efforts to study the impact of this oil pipeline over the last several years.
I believe this pipeline is in the best interest of our country and it should be approved for construction without further delay.
Sincerely,
Kay Granger
Member of Congress