Members of Arkansas' Congressional and state House delegations gathered Monday to call for the approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would transport Canadian tar-sand oil to refineries in the United States.
A group of politicians toured the Welspun Tubular LLC facility on Frazier Pike in Little Rock before gathering at the facility's storage yard to urge President Barack Obama and the U.S. Senate to move forward with authorization for the project. Welspun makes pipe for underground gas and oil pipelines, but has had to halt production and lay off more than a quarter of its staff partly because of the delay, company officials said Monday.
Among the politicians were U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, a Little Rock Democrat, and his Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, of Dardanelle. The two have been locked in a heated Senate race, but both came out to call for the project's approval.
"This is one issue they both agree on. That's unique in a political campaign, but it shows how committed the people of Arkansas are to this project and how much they want it to happen," said David Delie, president and chief executive officer of Welspun.
The two candidates briefly shook hands and talked when they arrived early Monday for a tour of the facility, but they took separate tours and spoke to the media separately after the news conference.
During the conference, Pryor addressed the crowd first, saying he has gone against the president's views and repeatedly supported the Keystone XL project.
"That oil in Canada is an asset," Pryor said. "It's going to come out of the ground. It's a question of if they refine it in the U.S. or do they ship it to a place like China. I would much rather that it be refined here. It's going to meet environmental standards, create American jobs, it's going to lessen our dependence on overseas oil where we'll be paying billions every year to unfriendly countries."
Pryor said he expected a vote in the Senate soon on whether to approve the pipeline project. He left from the news conference for the airport to get back to Washington D.C.
Another energy bill stalled Monday after supporters failed to come up with the 60 votes necessary to limit debate.
Cotton, who represents Arkansas' 4th congressional district, said he and the other three congressmen from Arkansas -- including U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, who was at the event Monday -- had supported a bill to approve construction of the pipeline and called the delays "political foot-dragging" by the president.
"The Keystone pipeline quite simply means jobs and growth and opportunity for Arkansas' economy," he said. "Hundred of jobs here in Little Rock, hundreds of millions of dollars in investment. That's why businesses support the pipeline, unions support the pipeline, and Arkansans support it, because they know investments in our energy infrastructure means lower prices at the pump and lower electricity prices for their homes and businesses."
Opponents have argued that the pipeline could contaminate groundwater and increase pollution. Supporters argue that the oil is now being transported on trains and trucks, which they say is more dangerous and less environmentally friendly because of the greenhouse gases the vehicles emit.
Delie said he wanted to show the delegation as well as the media the 356 miles of pipeline sitting on wooden blocks at the company's storage facility near the Little Rock Port. He said just loading the existing pipes would put 50 or more people to work and support close to 200 more positions, including janitorial, maintenance and transport jobs.
He pointed to recent accidents involving rail cars carrying oil: one in Lynchburg, Va., and another in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, where trains derailed and exploded. The overnight derailment in Lac-Megantic killed 47 people.
Phillip Wallace, the business representative for the Pipeliners Union, Local 798, said he believed pipelines were a much safer way to transport the oil. He said incidents such as the 2013 oil spill in Mayflower, in which a decades-old Exxon Mobil pipeline ruptured, could be prevented by new infrastructure, engineering and monitoring practices that would be used to construct the Keystone XL.
If approved, the Keystone XL Pipeline would use 36-inch diameter pipe to transport oil about 1,200 miles from the Alberta province of Canada to Nebraska, Illinois and Texas.
In addition to the federal delegation, state Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow; Sen. Jane English, R-North Little Rock; Rep. David Meeks, R-Conway; and Rep. Nate Bell, R-Mena, attended the tour and indicated their support for the pipeline project.
Metro on 05/13/2014