SECOND REGULAR SESSION

House Concurrent Resolution No. 4

97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES ENGLISH (Sponsor), LEARA, LICHTENEGGER, ZERR, MAYFIELD, MIMS, MCCAHERTY, DOHRMAN, JUSTUS, KOLKMEYER, CORNEJO, MCGAUGH, LOVE, MUNTZEL, HURST, WALKER, RUNIONS, WIELAND, FUNDERBURK, BURNS, BLACK, KELLEY (127), WHITE, GATSCHENBERGER, PACE AND JONES (110) (Co-sponsors).

4461L.01I

 

            WHEREAS, high oil prices are having a major detrimental impact on families, farms, and businesses in Missouri and are likely to undercut the prospects for an economic recovery; and

 

            WHEREAS, the United States currently imports almost half of its oil and petroleum products, making it dependent on foreign sources and subject to interruptions and price fluctuations stemming from geopolitical forces; and

 

            WHEREAS, such instability has damaging consequences both for our economy and our national security; and

 

            WHEREAS, the United States Geological Survey estimates a resource of up to 27 billion barrels of oil in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas of Alaska, providing a vast domestic oil reserve, but opposition and regulatory hurdles are keeping energy producers from accessing these resources; and

 

            WHEREAS, the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline project seeks to link expanded oil production from the Canadian oil sands to refineries in the United States and to facilitate the flow of oil from the Dakotas to the Gulf Coast, thereby decreasing our dependence on oil from outside of North America; and

 

            WHEREAS, Canada is a close friend and ally, with whom we share links of infrastructure and energy networks and other ties, so that dollars spent on Canadian oil will likely contribute to the success of the American economy; and

 

            WHEREAS, the TransCanada pipeline project is projected to create construction and manufacturing jobs in the United States, adding billions of dollars to the United States economy:

 

            NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the House of Representatives of the Ninety-seventh General Assembly, Second Regular Session, the Senate concurring therein, hereby call upon President Barack Obama and administration officials to:

 

            (1) Support the increased importation of oil from Canadian oil sands and to approve the newly routed TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline to reduce our oil dependency on unstable governments, strengthen ties with an important ally, and create jobs for American workers;

 

            (2) Support and facilitate permitting for oil production off the northern coast of Alaska to decrease our dependence on foreign oil and spur investment in the American economy; and

 

            BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the Missouri House of Representatives be instructed to prepare properly inscribed copies of this resolution for President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, United States House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, and each member of the Missouri Congressional delegation.