Posted on 02/11/2014 5:16:53 AM PST by thackney
Stop obsessing over Keystone XL.
That’s one of the messages Sen. Ted Cruz delivered to conservatives at a major policy summit on Monday, as the freshman from Texas urged fellow GOP lawmakers to stop focusing so squarely on TransCanada Corp.’s proposed oil pipeline — and instead do more to unleash America’s energy potential.
“As much as we need to approve the Keystone pipeline, we need to think far broader than that,” Cruz told the Heritage Action for America Conservative Policy Summit. “We need to do far more.”
Cruz’s policy speech — his first major address on energy issues — marks a shift in the Tea Party favorite’s focus too, away from the health care law known as Obamacare to the economic potential of domestic fossil fuel development.
“We are seeing the beginning of an American energy renaissance,” Cruz said to a standing room-only crowd. “There is one thing — and only one thing — that can stop us from achieving the full potential of this energy renaissance, and that is government.”
Despite his plea to move beyond Keystone XL, Cruz did stress his support for the pipeline, which would link Canada’s oil sands with Gulf Coast refineries.
“If you are a Birkenstock-wearing, tree-hugging Greenpeace activist, you should love the Keystone pipeline,” he said. If it isn’t built, “we will continue to rely more and more on overseas oil, and as long as there are tankers, there will be spills.”
Besides, Keystone XL isn’t the only potential avenue for carrying Canadian oil sands crude to market, Cruz said, echoing a talking point frequently voiced by the project’s supporters. If not carried to U.S. refineries, the supplies would be refined under looser environmental rules in China, he said.
“If the pipeline is not built north-south, it will be built. It will just go east-west instead,” Cruz said. “The Canadians won’t leave the oil sands unmolested.”
Expanding energy exports
Cruz dedicated most of his 30-minute address to extolling the virtues of private enterprise and outlining the perils of government regulation. The speech was laden with jokes about Al Gore and digs at former President Jimmy Carter that played well before a mostly Republican crowd.
He delivered an ode to the late George Mitchell, the Texas oilman who pioneered the combination of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to extract oil and gas from shale. And he offered a withering criticism of Obama administration policies he said are standing in the way of domestic energy production, such as limits on offshore drilling.
Al Gore: Keystone XL is an ‘atrocity’
Cruz also made a pitch for expanded exports of U.S. oil and natural gas. While the government has approved plans to sell liquefied natural gas overseas, Cruz complained “the bureaucratic paperwork to export LNG has been mind-numbingly slow.” And he called the 1975 ban on exporting crude oil a “relic from ages where our supply of crude oil was viewed as quite limited.”
Energy bill planned
Nominally, Cruz was at the Heritage Foundation’s building, blocks from the U.S. Capitol, to outline the broad contours of energy legislation he plans to introduce soon.
The measure is still in development, but so far, it is on track to be a compilation of GOP proposals that have passed the House only to stall in the U.S. Senate. According to Cruz, the bill would:
- force the federal government to offer more offshore acreage for oil and gas drilling.
- bar federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing.
- streamline the permitting process for building new refineries.
- force approval of Keystone XL and “remove the barriers” standing in the way of other pipelines.
Cruz stressed that economic activity tied to oil, gas and coal development cuts across U.S. sectors and states, propping up heavy manufacturing as well as other industries.
In MY neck o'th'woods the gas industry is where a young buck should be.
Long hours, hard work, keep your eyes and ears open, learn, retire in 5 - 10 years.
retired sand can driver
I don’t think this Houston Chronicle writer likes Ted Cruz very much. He didn’t say “stop obsessing.” The speech was about energy. It doesn’t mark a “a shift in the Tea Party favorite’s focus, away from the health care law known as Obamacare.” He can give a bang up talk on O-care any time he wants.
Why would any paper (liberal entity) like Cruz? To now, they’ve just avoided him.
He lives to help this country get out of its own way
Cruz for Senate
http://www.chron.com/opinion/editorials/article/Cruz-for-Senate-3961708.php
October 18, 2012
We endorse Ted Cruz to succeed Kay Bailey Hutchison and join Sen. John Cornyn in the U.S. Senate.
- - - - - - - -
They had a hard time saying it. And they first gave reasons why everyone else was good, but the Houston Comical did manage to endorse Ted Cruz before the general election.
Although I will support Cruz if he runs for President...he has a few things wrong on Keystone
First..it is important...a win against EcoNazis on Keystone makes petro products cheaper...and will push ahead other pipelines
Second...NAFTA forces Canada to sell 2/3 of their petroleum to the US...they cannot ship it all to Communist China to refine it. Unless we end NAFTA (a good idea) Canada is limited to what they do w Keystone...I wish folks would stop perpetuating the “send it to Communist China” myth.
Second...NAFTA forces Canada to sell 2/3 of their petroleum to the US...
False.
That is a NAFTA myth.
Article 605 of NAFTA has been interpreted by some to mean that Canada is required to sell a certain percentage of its energy output to the United States, even in the face of a severe domestic shortage. Moreover, they argue that NAFTA prevents this percentage from falling over time.
Neither of these statements is true. Canadian producers are free to sell as much oil as they wish to whomever they wish, including, for example, overseas customers. As a result, the share of total output exported to the United States can rise or fall according to the normal forces of supply and demand.
The only condition that NAFTA imposes on Canadian energy products is that all buyers in North America must have equal rights to buy those products.
http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/LOP/researchpublications/prb0633-e.htm
It reads like a POW statement made under duress
Actually the Keystone obsession has been good in the sense that its distracting everyone from the fact that other pipelines are expanding capacity. Capacity on the Embridge pipeline across southern Michigan has been doubled.
The headline sounds misleading. What he said was keep focus on the bigger picture.
It is almost funny to read.
Lots of folks around Houston used past endorsements of Liberal Nutjobs as the reason for cancelling their subscriptions. It has been a tough for them to face reality.
Excellent points I should have seen.
Oooops..........
Oooops again.......
It’s a REALLY good, REALLY clear issue, and the ducks are in a row.
So-—tell me again why we should just drop it and “stop obsessing”.
The downside of obsessing about it is all the other stuff that falls by the wayside. For instance we should lift the completely pointless Great Lakes directional drilling ban but if you mention it, most people just give you a blank stare. The sure aren’t going to spend any time leaning on their congressman over it.
First..it is important...
Did he say the Keystone was not important? I didn't think so. Thackney has addressed your second 'concern'. Carry on.
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