Energy Independence in the United States

Be it hereby enacted by the House of Representatives of the United States of America,

Preamble
Whereas imports of oil in the United States have fallen from 60% in 2005 to 40% in 2012 and is still on
a steady decline,
Whereas over a majority of oil imported into the United States is imported from allied countries
including but not limited to Canada and Mexico,
Whereas petroleum is a limited fossil fuel resource and the need for renewable energy sources
increases every day,
Whereas US domestic produced oil has risen dramatically, and will be at an all time high that has not
been reached since 1972 in 2015,
Whereas companies in various industries, including oil, natural gas, and coal, have invested heavily into
alternative energy, but the investments returns are minimal in terms of capital and progress towards
finding sustainable fuel sources,
Whereas OPECs control over global oil is still significant to the economy of the United States.
Whereas the House also that the current method of using rail to transport the oil from the tar sands in
Alberta Canada is incredibly dangerous and has already caused many disasters and killed people
within Canada
1.

Approves the Keystone XL Pipeline, which delivers oil from Canada to the refineries in Texas,
for reasons such as but not limited to;
a. The construction of the pipeline would greatly increase jobs available in the market by
around 9,000,
b. Taxes paid by the Trans Canada company will go to much in need poor counties in
the central United States,
i. The tax revenue would generate $134.6 million in state and local levies in
Nebraska alone,
ii. Would be used to pay for more infrastructure and to pay off debts
c. Would make North America energy independent by 2035;

2.

Approves the safety proposals for the Keystone Pipeline put forward by the TransCanada
Corporation would make sure the pipeline is safe and they properly address safety concerns
regarding construction and require that the corporation follow through completely on their
pipeline safety features such as:
a. High quality steel that, in accordance to government regulations, that is able to
withstand a 65 ton excavator with 3.5 inch steel teeth to prevent third party damage to
the pipeline.
b. In addition to the high quality steel, the use of corrosion-resistant fusion-bonded
epoxy (FBE) coatings must be applied to prevent rust and corrosion of the pipe.
c. Applying a very low-voltage current to the pipe during construction called cathodic
protection, to further prevent corrosion of the pipe.
d. Employing the use of horizontal directional drilling in the environmentally sensitive
areas identified in clause 1, which will allow the pipe construction to take place
approximately 25 feet under rivers, highways, bridges, to reduce traffic and
environmental damage.

e.

Require that the pipe be equipped with automated shut-off valves placed at intervals
of 20 miles along route and extra valves be placed at areas such as
i. Water sources
ii. Areas of higher population
iii. Areas with intensive agricultural activity

3.

Further Approves the proposal of the Transcanada Corporation regarding the maintenance of
the pipeline, which includes features such as:
a. 100% weld inspections and a monitoring program that inspects every single weld
made for the pipe, which will be done by
b. Employ the latest ultrasonic inspection technology and X ray tools to ensure the
quality of the pipe.
c. Requiring every weld be inspected by independent inspectors to confirm quality.
d. Ensure that most fittings, valves, and seals are located at pumping stations where
maintenance crews can easily access them.
e. Fully approves of TransCanadas proposal to employ 13,500 sensors feeding constant
information to its control center.

4.

Allows more widespread use of new oil obtaining techniques, such as fracking, in order to
increase American local oil production because:
a. The usage of fracking will make the United States the worlds largest oil producer,
beating out Saudi Arabia, by 2019 ,
b. Shale and tight oil have been shown to increase US oil productivity by 50% since
2008,
c. OPECs monopoly on oil and turmoil in the Middle East have only made gas prices rise
increasingly higher since 2005;

5.

Provides incentives for domestic drilling enterprises in order to decrease U.S. reliance on
foreign oil in ways such as but not limited to:
a. Subsidising the costs for these enterprises,
b. Providing financial benefits for meeting certain quotas for gallons of domestically
drilled oil;

6.

Funds more programs in which to increase the United States output of non-fossil fuel based
energy sources such as but not limited to:
a. Geothermal energy,
b. Hydroelectric energy,
c. Wind power,
d. Solar power;

7.

Allows for 5% of all national parks to be sold to oil companies for drilling for reasons such as
but not limited to;
a. National Parks hold an extremely large quantity of oil that can be used to rectify the
more pressing issue of energy independence,
b. Would allow for large economic gains in the regions that these parks are in, which
would in turn help keep the parks in pristine condition;