| June 8, 2012 William Harasym 200 Smith Street Apt 410 Sheridan, WY 82801-3842 Dear William: Thank you for contacting me regarding the proposed construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. I appreciate hearing from you. As you may be aware, the Keystone XL project was initiated by TransCanada in 2008. According to that application and State Department information, "The proposed Keystone XL Project consists of a 1,700-mile crude oil pipeline and related facilities that would primarily be used to transport Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin crude oil from an oil supply hub in Alberta, Canada to delivery points in Oklahoma and Texas. The proposed Project would also be capable of transporting U.S. crude oil to those delivery points. The proposed project could transport up to 830,000 barrels per day and is estimated to cost $7 billion." Because the pipeline crosses an international border, the State Department is charged with issuing the final permit. On November 10, 2011, the Obama Administration announced that it would not make a decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 elections. Given that the pipeline had already been carefully analyzed for over 3 years and had already received favorable reports from the State Department, House Republicans were unwilling to allow for further delays on a project so desperately needed to increase jobs, to promote energy security, and to help resolve pipeline capacity problems that continue to plague our domestic energy production. For this reason the bill to temporarily extend the payroll tax deduction required the President to make a final decision on Keystone XL by February 21, 2012. Not surprisingly, President Obama once again sidestepped his duties as leader of the country by partly rejecting the pipeline on February 18, 2012 with the dubious claim that there was not enough time to fully analyze the project. While I would have disagreed with his decision to halt the project no matter what his reason, I could have at least respected his decision if he had clearly stated that he agreed with the arguments of pipeline opponents and rejected the proposal outright. While wrong, such a statement would at least be leadership. Instead, he agreed that TransCanada could resubmit an application, meaning the project timeline is simply reset, once again allowing President Obama to escape his leadership responsibilities by punting any firm decision until after the 2012 elections. I believe that the pipeline is in our national interest – for the creation of jobs, to boost pipeline infrastructure, and to bolster our national security – and will ultimately be completed. It makes no sense whatsoever to delay all three of those important goals for the sole reason of making it past an election. President Obama ought to accept the plan or reject it. His insistence on avoiding the issue entirely is election year politics at its worst, and highlights his failure to lead on domestic energy security across the board. Thank you again for taking the time to write to me. I value your input. If you haven't done so already, I would like to encourage you to visit my website at www.lummis.house.gov. There you can sign up to receive my newsletter, and have access to a wealth of other information. I won't flood your email box, but I will provide you with updates once in a while about activities in Washington that affect our lives in Wyoming. I hope you will sign up so that we can stay in close touch, and I look forward to seeing you in Wyoming. Sincerely, Cynthia M. Lummis A Member of Congress Own by Dirty Energy |
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