CEA to Outline Benefits of Keystone XL at Austin Hearing
AUSTIN, TX – The State Department is holding a public hearing in Austin today to give the public an opportunity to weigh in on the Keystone XL Pipeline project. In advance of the hearing, Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) President David Holt – who will attend the hearing and deliver public comments supporting Keystone XL – released the following statement:
“The Keystone XL pipeline will create approximately 120,000 jobs across the United States, and 50,000 of those jobs will be created here in Texas. This project will also boost the Texas economy by nearly $2 billion and generate over $48 million in new state and local tax revenue. This is a significant sum of money that can go toward our state’s infrastructure needs, as well as to improve our public schools and hospitals.
“The 700,000 barrels of oil per day that this pipeline will bring to Gulf Coast refineries will be coming from stable sources like Oklahoma, the Dakotas and Canada, sources that are not subject to violent revolutions like we have seen in Egypt and Libya. This oil is also discounted against prices we pay for oil from the Middle East, which means lower fuel prices for both our military and families across the country.
“The State Department has found that the pipeline will be environmentally safe, including an assessment that processing Canadian crude ‘would not likely affect refinery emissions’ in Texas. Independent analyses have confirmed that it will create thousands of high paying jobs and significantly boost the U.S. economy. The Department of Energy acknowledges that it will enhance our energy security. For all of these reasons, CEA is urging the Obama Administration – on behalf of energy consumers in Texas and nationwide – to grant the Presidential Permit and allow the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline.”
The 1,700-mile Keystone XL Pipeline project received approval from Canada’s National Energy Board in 2010, but the project also requires a Presidential Permit from the U.S. Department of State because it crosses an international border. In June, CEA delivered more than 62,000 public comments supporting the project to the U.S. Department of State, all of which came from people living in the six states through which the proposed pipeline will travel: Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
