House Natural Resources Energy and Minerals Subcommittee Chairman Doug Lamborn (CO-05) delivered the following statement (as prepared for delivery) on the House floor in support of H.R. 1938, the “North American Made Energy Security Act.”

“The legislation takes a crucial step towards securing our nation and putting Americans back to work. In 2010 alone, the United States imported over one trillion barrels of oil to the United States from OPEC countries – many of which have unstable governments. While my preference would be that we displace that oil with domestically produced resources from the Rockies, our OCS and Alaska, we have the advantage of having a stable, friendly energy rich trading partner sharing our northern border.

As we have seen in so many other aspects of our nation’s energy portfolio – whether it be offshore production, onshore production, or renewable energy production on federal lands, the Obama Administration is once again stonewalling domestic energy security, and job creation with needless delays and bureaucratic red tape.

This legislation will help ensure a steady supply of crude oil from one of our strongest allies and has the potential to create 20,000 direct construction jobs for Americans and spur $20 billion in new spending in the US economy. The extension of this pipeline will generate $585 million in new state and local taxes during construction and greatly lessen our dependence on oil from OPEC.

Opponents of this pipeline seem to believe that if we don’t use this oil here it won’t be produced. That position is fundamentally wrong and displays a foolish disregard for the political nature of international oil production. The reality is, if America won’t take this oil China will. Instead of having a secure pipeline feeding the American heartland, we will see massive tankers off the coast of Washington and Oregon as China fills its ships for export.

We should pass H.R. 1938.”

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