Date: 2014-06-24
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

I thank the ranking member of the committee for yielding. Maybe in my 4 minutes. I can convince him. Mr. Chairman. I rise today as a proud cosponsor and in support of H.R. 3301. the North American Energy Infrastructure Act. Passing H.R. 3301 will help create the North American energy market. It will help make us energyindependent for North America. between our two free trading partners. Mexico and Canada. But I also need to correct the record. There is a lot of misinformation about this legislation. and I hope to make a few things clear. Commerce decisions are the responsibility of Congress. Today we can have 1.000 tankcar trains with crude oil come from Canada without a permit. but to build a pipeline. it has been delayed for years because it couldnt get a Presidential permit. We can bring the same substance from Canada in train cars. but we cant put it on a safer mode of pipelines. Congress has not acted on legislative crossborder infrastructure since 1850. I think it is time to change that. The Presidential permit process that my colleague is defending so vigorously is an executive order process that could be changed depending on who is in the White House. My colleague may support the process now but may oppose the process later. H.R. 3301 gives statutory certainty to build transmission lines. oil pipelines. or natural gas pipelines with our two free trade neighbors. Canada and Mexico. H.R. 3301 eliminates uncertainty that has crippled infrastructure development. These pipelines are not paid for by tax money. They are paid for by investors. H.R. 3301 does not eliminate or limit environmental reviews of crossborder infrastructure. In fact. the bill cements environmental reviews by putting it into law. The bill does not eliminate the public interests or deem applications approved. The bill guarantees the public interest must be met but in a timely fashion. Finally. the bill does not apply to the current project applications. like Keystone XL. This bill doesnt go into effect if it is passed by the Senate until 2016. Keystone may or may not have their project approval or their plan approval by then. but they would have to get back in line with everyone else after this bill goes into effect. We have safeguarded against this by grandfathering current applications and delaying the effective date until mid2016. There are more than 60 crossborder projects that have been built over the last few decades. But today. there are more than 10 applications at the State Department awaiting action because political decisions have been bogged down in the process. Crossborder infrastructure is important in the public interest. The State Department has stated: "Additional pipeline capacity will advance the strategic interests of the United States. send positive economic signals. and provide construction jobs for workers in the U.S." We can build crossborder infrastructure while protecting the environment. Federal agencies are required to consider the environmental impacts of the actual infrastructure. Federal. State. and local agencies approve domestic projects every single day. All the opponents of H.R. 3301 want to talk about is Keystone XL and the environmental review. We have solved both of these issues. advanced the public interest of the United States. secured our domestic energy needs for decades to come. solidified our relationships with our two closest partners. Canada and Mexico. and made North America a new global powerhouse in the energy sector. H.R. 3301 is not about the past. H.R. 3301 is about securing the economic. security. and environmental needs of the future.