U.S. Senator John Thune (R-South Dakota) joined a number of his Senate Republican colleagues today at a press conference calling for President Obama to finally approve the Keystone XL pipeline ahead of the sixth anniversary of TransCanada’s original application.
Thune made the following remarks at today’s press conference, “For South Dakota, this is about jobs and it’s about the economy…We are producing energy in this country that fuels our economy, and if you are going to move it, a pipeline, it seems to me, is a pretty environmentally-sound and safe way to do that. Because if you don’t, you are moving it on rail—you are moving it above ground…[Building the pipeline] reduces the bottleneck we have on railroad service in our country…We [in South Dakota] are having a hard time getting our agricultural commodities to marketplace because of all the backlogs that have been created. And I’m not saying this is going to resolve all those…but one thing is pretty certain, and that is if you are not moving all [the Bakken oil] on rail, that means there are going to be more locomotives and more rail service to move the agricultural harvest that we are really concerned about.”
Video of Thune’s statement at today’s press conference is available here.
Thune also made the following statement ahead of tomorrow’s sixth anniversary:
“At a time when jobs and the economy remain a top concern for the American people, approving the Keystone XL pipeline is a no-brainer. The pipeline project has broad bipartisan support, would create tens of thousands of jobs across America, and would invest billions of dollars into the U.S. economy.
“It’s time for the president to put the interests of hard-working Americans ahead of the extreme environmental wing of his party, and use that pen he likes to talk about to approve this project today.”