Montana Senator Steve Daines sits on the Senate Energy and Commerce Committee, which today passed a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. He told the committee it’s important for Montana’s economy.
"Not everybody has a fly rod in their hand and is on the ski hill," said Daines.
Daines said the pipeline will move 100,000 barrels a day of oil produced in Montana and North Dakota.
"It’s $80 million a year in tax revenues for the state of Montana, and for these rural counties that desperately need infrastructure, to pay for roads, for bridges, for teachers, for schools."
Darrell Groutte is a rancher near Wolf Point, and the pipeline would run across his land. He says not everyone along the Keystone XL route thinks it’s a good idea. Garoutte says he worried about a pipeline spill contaminating his land and water, and that the oil it will transport is more toxic than conventional crude oil.
Watch Daines' testimony on the Keystone bill below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpE_7haG93c&feature=youtu.be