Bravo, Senator Markey!

Below is a response received from Senator Markey [D-MA] regarding my email expressing OPPOSITION to the Dirty Keystone XL pipeline proposed by TransCAnada.

In the Senator's response, he has raised ALL of the significant issues surround this Dirty Tar Sands proposal.

The TransCanada Pipeline has NOTHING to offer except Campaign Contributions!

EDWARD J. MARKEY MASSACHUSETTS		218 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON, DC 20510 (202) 224-2742
	United States Senate November 21, 2014

Thank you for contacting me to express your concerns regarding the Keystone XL pipeline. I appreciate hearing from you on this important matter.

Before I was elected to the United States Senate, I was the Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee and a senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, giving me close involvement in the debate over our country's energy policy and the Keystone XL pipeline. Our nation's energy policy should protect our air and water, address the threat of global warming by reducing carbon pollution, strengthen our energy security by reducing our country's dependence on foreign oil, and create jobs in the United States by encouraging the development of clean energy.

I oppose the Keystone pipeline project because it would not advance any of these goals. The Keystone XL pipeline would ask the United States to bear all of the environment risks without ensuring any benefits for American consumers or our energy security. The pipeline would transport Canadian tar sands oil, some of the dirtiest, most pollution-packed oil on the planet, through the United States to refineries in Texas, where it could be exported to foreign markets. The pipeline would end in Port Arthur, Texas, which is a foreign free trade zone, where the oil and refined fuels could potentially be exported without having to pay excise taxes. Last year, we exported more than 1 billion barrels of refined petroleum products from the United States. Roughly 80 percent of those exports were from the Gulf of Mexico, exactly where the Keystone pipeline would terminate.

TransCanada, the foreign company proposing this pipeline, would like to use our country as a middleman to transport this dirty oil from Canada to the rest of the world. When I asked a TransCanada official during a hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee whether he would commit to the American people that the oil and refined fuels from the Keystone pipeline would stay in America, he said "no." We should not allow our climate to be harmed by this dirty oil, and then add the insult of exporting that oil abroad to benefit other economies. That is a bad deal for our planet and for U.S. consumers.

That is why this year I have introduced legislation in the Senate, S. 2136, to call the oil industry's bluff that the Keystone XL pipeline would enhance our energy security. My legislation would ensure that the oil and refined fuels from the Keystone XL pipeline, should it be approved, stay in the United States. Without my legislation, there is nothing to prevent the oil and transported through the Keystone XL pipeline from simply being exported to foreign markets. That is unacceptable. I introduced S. 2136 on March 13, 2014 and it has been referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. I am working with my colleagues to ensure further action on my legislation.

The proponents of the Keystone XL pipeline also continue to ignore the lessons of recent tar sands oil spills such as the ExxonMobil pipeline spill in Arkansas in 2013 and the Enbridge tar sands spill in Michigan in 2010. Right now, there is a loophole that allows tar sands oil to avoid paying taxes into our oil spill cleanup fund even though it can be more difficult and costly to clean up than regular crude. Because of a misguided IRS ruling that tar sands oil is not crude oil for purposes of paying into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, it currently gets a free ride through U.S. pipelines. The Government Accountability Office has warned us that this trust fund is at risk of running out of money because of the cost of recent major cleanup efforts. We should close this tar sands tax loophole to help ensure that the oil spill cleanup fund has the revenue it needs to respond to spills. I introduced legislation in the Senate, S. 2135, on March 13, 2014 that would close this loophole for tar sands oil. This legislation has been referred to the Committee on Finance.

This November, I spoke in opposition to and voted against legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, S.2280. S. 2280 was rejected by the Senate by a vote of 59 - 41 on November 18, 2014. The Keystone XL pipeline would force America to bear the environmental risk while oil companies reap the financial rewards. It would increase our emissions of heat trapping gases. And at the end of the day, it wouldn't even increase our energy security. I do not believe this pipeline is in the national interest and it should be rejected. I will continue to oppose legislative efforts to approve the pipeline.

I believe that our nation needs an energy strategy that includes wind, solar and energy efficiency. We need to level the energy playing field by extending tax credits for the wind, solar and energy efficiency industries that are creating permanent jobs in Massachusetts and across our country.

Thank you again for contacting me about this issue. If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me. To sign up for my newsletter, visit http://www.markey.senate.gov/newsletter. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Sincerely,

Edward J. Markey
United States Senator