Senate Dem: Greatest threat to energy security is transportation

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) warned Thursday that the greatest threat to U.S. energy security isn’t finding energy, it’s transporting it.

At a natural gas roundtable on Capitol Hill, Heitkamp said the push by environmental groups against projects like the Keystone XL pipeline would hurt future infrastructure needed to transport the country’s energy resources.

{mosads}Heitkamp warned that, if the environmental groups are “successful in shutting down the oil sands,” then their method would be used against every energy transportation project.

She said environmental groups are headed toward fighting “the transportation of energy” in general.

“Whether it’s to fight a power line from a coal-fired generation facility, whether it’s to fight a natural gas line, or to fight any kind of oil pipeline,” Heitkamp warned environmental groups would disable the projects if they succeed in the Keystone XL fight.

Heitkamp added: “And when I look at the greatest threat to our energy security in America, I don’t think it’s finding energy, it is moving energy.”

Currently, the State Department has frozen its national interest review of the pipeline, which would carry crude from oil sands in Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries. The pause has likely pushed back a decision by the president on the pipeline until well after midterms.