By Sabrina Fang
Last night during his State of the Union, the president spoke about wanting Democrats and Republicans to come together to support new infrastructure, but they already have! Congress is preparing to send a bipartisan bill to the president to build Keystone XL. Unfortunately, this bipartisan effort has been met with a veto threat from the White House. During the speech the president dismissed this bipartisan effort saying: “…let’s set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline”.
Mr. President, it’s not just about one pipeline; it’s about smart energy policy that needs to start somewhere. KXL is just the first best step in the right direction to enhance this country’s energy future. What he should have said is let’s start enhancing our 21st century infrastructure by building that one pipeline, the Keystone XL pipeline.
We agree with the president about the need for 21st century infrastructure. In fact, Keystone is part of the $1 trillion in oil and gas infrastructure investments possible in the U.S. energy sector by 2025. And like the modern ports and stronger bridges the president talked about last night, Keystone would be built by American men and women who rely on the thousands of construction jobs these large-scale projects provide. A project that puts 42,000 Americans to work should not be brushed aside.
The American people want it, American refiners want it and American producers want to get their oil to those Gulf Coast refineries. And we believe Americans would rather get a large portion of the eight to nine million barrels they import each and every day from Canada rather than Venezuela or the Middle East.
Speak Your Mind