Jan 13, 2015 — Senator Charles Schumer said he will offer amendments to a bill that would approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said he has opposed the project in the past but now hopes to improve legislation that might allow it to go forward.

Schumer said any oil shipped through the line should be used in the United States and not exported overseas.

"If we're going to do it, let's use the oil here to benefit Americans," Schumer said when he spoke with reporters yesterday in Albany. "That's going to be the first amendment we put on the floor. And second, if this is a jobs bill, let the steel that's used in the pipeline be made here in America." Debate over the project in the Senate is expected to begin in the next two weeks. The Keystone XL pipeline would ship oil from western Canada to the United States Gulf Coast. Environmentalists oppose the project in part because it would add to carbon pollution.

Oil train safety urged

Senator Schumer is also pushing the Obama administration to move faster on new safety regulations for oil trains that transport crude oil through New York State. Schumer said new rules about train speed and the retrofitting of DOT-111 tanker cars should not be delayed by bureaucracy.

Proposed new safety rules for oil shipment by rail developed by the Transportation Department, have now gone to the Federal Office of Management and Budget for review. Schumer warned the next step of the rule-making process could take "several months or longer to finalize." Schumer said any delay could put New York communities at risk. According to his office, more than 100 oil trains cross upstate New York each month — many of them traveling through the Champlain and St. Lawrence Valleys. Schumer also warned against weakening the proposed rules, which include new speed regulations.

The Aftermath of Lac-Megantic

Similar rules have already been implemented in Canada following a disaster in Lac Megantic two summers ago that destroyed the downtown of a community in Quebec.

“The people who live in these communities, who want to see tough, new safety standards, cannot wait on the grating gears of bureaucracy,” Schumer said in a statement. “These rules must now be approved and implemented in haste.” If approved, the new rules would give shippers two years to stop using DOT-111s to carry the most volatile cargos.

Thanks to WAMC for assistance with this story.