CNN's Dana Bash fact checks Sen. Rob Portman on Keystone XL

Watch CNN’s Dana Bash Stop Rob Portman’s Keystone XL Lie Dead In Its Tracks

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Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 01:48 pm

Sen. Rob Portman tried to say that Keystone XL would make up for the Russian oil the US is not importing, but CNN’s Dana Bash gave him the facts.

Video:

Sen. Portman said on CNN’s State Of The Union, “When the president was elected, he said we’re going to cut off Keystone which is North American energy which is what we’re talking about. That was over 800,000 barrels per day, more than the Russian oil which was 600,000 barrels a day. Second, he issued an executive order stopping exploration on public lands and water. Finally, he’s rewriting this legislation that is now a regulation that has to do with permitting called waters of the United States. All of this is leading to less North American energy production. Specific policy decisions have been made.”

Bash responded:

Senator, a couple of things. On Keystone, I have not seen any report that it would have even been done in time to affect the crisis that’s happening now. It wouldn’t have been done until at least next year. On the public hands you’re talking about, that might be true, that he stopped production on public lands, but the administration has given more permits for drilling on private lands.

In fact, I have a comment from Secretary Granholm saying take advantage of the leases you have, hire workers, get your rig up. Isn’t it true that this is really just because of the pandemic and all of the economic woes and the implications from the pandemic that we’re seeing now and then, of course, exacerbated by Russia?

Portman then shifted gears to the false claim that Biden wants to cut domestic energy production.

Domestic energy production has grown under Biden, but this is a fact that Republicans deny because it doesn’t fit the story that they attempting to sell.

The GOP plan would benefit the oil companies, not the American people.

The truth is that the Republican solution isn’t a solution at all, because the United States does not own the oil in its own ground. The oil is the property of the oil companies once it is extracted. The United States, without legislative changes, can’t tell the oil companies to keep the oil in the US.

Increased US production would add to the supply in the global market, but it would ease the crisis at home.

Keystone XL is a pipeline, not an oilfield, and it does nothing to increase the domestic supply of oil.

Sen. Portman was lying, and Dana Bash caught him.

Jason Easley
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