U.S. Senator Dick Lugar

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Hoeven-Lugar-Vitter, Bipartisan Group of Senators to Introduce Legislation to Approve the Keystone XL Pipeline

U.S. Senators John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), David Vitter (R-La.) and a total of 44 senators today announced that they will introduce legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline project under Congress’s authority enumerated in the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8. The bipartisan group of senators committed to working together to advance this critical project for the United States. Hoeven, Lugar and the other senators have been working with colleagues in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to ensure that this vital project is advanced.
                                                  
The legislation authorizes TransCanada to construct and operate the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta, Canada, to the U.S. Gulf Coast, transporting an additional 830,000 barrels of oil per day to U.S. refineries, which includes 100,000 barrels a day from the Bakken region of North Dakota and Montana. The bill allows the company to move forward with construction of the pipeline in the United States while the state of Nebraska works to determine an alternative route.

The Keystone XL pipeline project has been under review for more than three years, but President Obama rejected it last week saying the 60-day provision authored by Lugar, Hoeven and Vitter included in the payroll tax cut extension bill passed in December didn’t give him enough time to review the project. In fact, the Obama Administration spent 1,217 days reviewing the pipeline and there was no time limit on the State Department’s ability to review the Nebraska portion of the project.

          “Our legislation not only acknowledges the vital national interest this project represents on many levels, but also works in a bipartisan way to begin construction,” Senator Hoeven said. “It will create thousands of jobs, help control fuel prices at the pump and reduce our reliance on Middle East oil and it can be accomplished with congressional authority, just as the Alaska Pipeline was nearly 40 years ago. The reality is that if America doesn’t build the Keystone project the Canadian oil will still be produced and shipped, but instead of being refined in the United States by American workers and benefiting American consumers, it will be shipped by tanker across the Pacific to China.”

“The job creation, economic and energy security arguments are overwhelmingly in favor of building the pipeline. A majority of Americans support it. President Obama’s opposition is not in the best interest of the United States. The President has failed to lead but we will not stop trying to complete this critical supply line,” Senator Lugar said.

“This new bill is a lot like the old one, but it makes it definitive that Congress has the authority to push the Keystone XL Pipeline forward,” said Senator Vitter. “Everyone in Washington talks about saving the economy and creating jobs - the Keystone XL project will actually do something about that. And it would be pure politics for the president not to support it.”

“The President said recently that he was for an ‘all of the above’ approach to energy, yet he rejected the one bipartisan energy project that is shovel-ready and can produce thousands of new jobs almost immediately - the Keystone XL Pipeline,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said. “While it’s clear that the President was appealing to his liberal environmental base when he blocked Keystone, this legislation would move us towards the creation of thousands of jobs and energy security for our nation.”

Read the bill summary

Read the full text of the bill

Learn more about Senator Lugar's KXL Pipeline Legislation

Passage of the legislation offered by Senators Dick Lugar (R-IN), John Hoeven (R-ND), and David Vitter (R-LA):

Creates Jobs. Creates 20,000 direct jobs in building the pipeline and manufacturing.

Strengthens National Security. Reduces need for foreign oil from volatile regions by increasing secure trade with Canada and encouraging production in the U.S. Bakken area.

Promotes economic growth. Boosts more than 1,400 U.S. companies that directly sell their products and services for oil sands production and transport.

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Lugar Statement on State of the Union

Following is the full transcript of Sen. Lugar's statement regarding the State of the Union speech and Gov. Mitch Daniels' response:

From the beginning of his administration, President Obama failed to focus on creating private sector jobs and improving the economy -- the most important problems facing our nation. He focused instead on an unpopular health care plan and increasing government financial regulations, both of which I opposed at every turn.

His focus should have been to stimulate dynamic job-creating economic growth, comprehensive tax reform, and reducing government spending.

President Obama's most recent failure to help grow private sector jobs was his decision to block construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. I wrote the bill trying to stop him from delaying a decision until after the election and I will continue to work toward reversing his obstruction of this secure fuel supply.

The Keystone XL pipeline would create 20,000 jobs including those from Indiana involved in supplying the project.

Presidential leadership would be demonstrated by approving the pipeline, rather than by blocking it.

Presidential leadership would also be working with Republicans on our very thoughtful budget plan that would cut federal spending by 6.2 trillion dollars. That's more than four times the goal of the failed congressional debt subcommittee. Instead, Democrats have left the federal government without a budget.

And, Presidential leadership would be beginning an earnest process of scrapping our unfair and complex tax code, instead of calling for tax increases.

The focus of Governor Mitch Daniels' response to the President highlights these important differences, and I am proud of his Hoosier wisdom in his address to our nation.

Full Video can be found at: www.youtube.com/senatorlugar