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What Small Business Owners Are Saying About The Keystone XL Pipeline

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While our country's small businesses continue to struggle to produce consistent job growth, the Keystone XL Pipeline would provide a needed boost to our economy. The pipeline will jumpstart local economies, creating an estimated 42,100 jobs, many of them with small businesses.

Last week, the Small Business Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade held a hearing on the economic benefits of the pipeline. Small business owners also shared how the Keystone XL pipeline would affect their business through the Committee’s interactive website, “Small Biz Open Mic.” 

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The economy here in Kansas is sluggish at best. I lost all of my trained help 5 years ago when the economy tanked and I could not keep them busy. Those employees have moved on or are enjoying their un-employment benefits and do not wish to return to work. I am slowly finding responsible people to replace them. Kraus Electric LLC is in the electric generator and pump business. I feel we could greatly benefit from the Keystone pipeline and any spin-off business created from the installation and later up-keep of the pumping stations. Kansas has several refineries in the Arkansas City and El Dorado areas that could be re-vitalized and put that oil to good use here in on the high plains. 
Lee Kraus (Scranton, KS) Kraus Electric LLC, May 20, 2013
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Bottom line We need to put people back to work. When Americans are working the spend money. Guess where? You got it in our businesses. I belive this pipeline should be allowed to be put in. This will make our dependence on over seas oil start going away, which in return should make our fuel prices go down. This will also help get America back on its feet.

Michael Friend (Wyandotte , OK) Firingline, May 20, 2013

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I am fully in support of the Keystone XL Pipeline, and any other project that promotes energy stability in the is country and produces jobs and expands the tax base. I feel that if good projects such as this one are left alone, they will take a lot of the financial pressure off the economy and allow improved growth. It benefits us all.

Huey Segura (Breaux Bridge, LA) Bates RV Rentals, May 20, 2013

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I do think not only would it get more jobs, but its quite possible it would lower fuel costs, and lower our dependence on overseas oil. I am all about the conservation of wild life habitat and the grasslands and mountains it would traverse.

Stephen Stringham (Providence, UT) Logan Door Service, May 21, 2013

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This is development just like housing, highways, schools or hospitals. We need and use energy and oil and gas is a fact of life in the consumption and implementation our country needs for operational movement. The environmentalist have not made a good case of alternative energy options, as they represent less than 4% of our total usage. Obviously they are not cost effective or easily funded as fossil fuels. Build the pipeline for future generations. This resource will be our future for another one hundred years, until we learn to harness solar and other alternative resources in a fundamental and cost effective way. Pipelines have an excellent safety record as do fracking procedures, so please get beyond your unrealistic bias.

Steve Jordan (Ardmore, OK) Jordan Insurance Group, May 21, 2013

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I own a small business in western South Dakota. Our primary market is this region that includes the oil fields of North Dakota and Wyoming. I am support of the Keystone Pipeline; however, I do want to see a larger percentage of total capacity dedicated towards moving oil out of the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota. The many jobs that will be created by the construction and maintenance of the pipeline will be of benefit but only those jobs are temporary. The long term benefit will come if we are moving US oil and the oil fields are sustainable for the long term.

Bryan Vulcan (Rapid City, SD) FourFront Design, Inc, May 21, 2013

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What are we doing to grow our economy? to secure our National Energy needs? We have the largest hydrocarbon reserves in the world. They are locked up by environmental rules and roadblocks. We must move now to unlock these as our fastest path to saving our country financially and from the national security standpoint. The Keystone Pipeline decision has certainly made us more vulnerable and protected no one -- the oil will now not be used to drive our country by the U.S. but will be used to drive our non-friends economic engine, the Chinese. Contrary to solar, the product of this work fits right into our existing infrastructure and transportation industry. 

Lawrence Cerenzie (Spanish Fork, UT) Cerenzie Engineering Consultants/FSC Coatings, March 2012
 

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Recognizing the importance of entrepreneurs’ feedback in the process of shaping the very policies that will help determine their business sustainability and growth, Chairman Graves launched Small Biz Open Mic in September of 2011.