Steelman: It's time to put the Keystone Pipeline back on track

US Senate candidate Sarah Steelman is calling on Congress to put the expansion of the Keystone XL Pipeline back on track. Gas prices have risen an average of a penny a day over the last month while Congress continues to waste time and money we don’t have on measures that won't help the taxpayers who keep paying these higher prices when filling up their tanks.

"Today, Energy Secretary Chu is testifying before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee about the Department of Energy's loan guarantee program, the one that brought us Solyndra. WHY are we wasting hundreds of millions of our tax dollars on risky, unproven and politically motivated programs instead of increasing our access to existing resources?" Steelman asked.

"Missourians and the rest of the country are hurting. We need to put Keystone back on track, expand offshore drilling, open up ANWR, construct more refineries and put proven resources into production. When we increase our supply lines we'll bring down gas prices and, in the process, create tens of thousands of good jobs in the energy sector. That's what we need, not more wasteful failures like Solyndra. Government needs to get out of the way and stop being in the business of picking winners and losers. When government tries to pick winners and losers, the taxpayers always lose,” Steelman concluded. Steelman's ad will run on the Fox network.

Steelman's energy plan takes an “all of the above” approach to solving our current and future energy needs. The development of new technology must not be hindered while we capitalize off the plethora of current resources available. Enacting this energy plan will reduce our current dependence on foreign oil, decrease current energy prices, ensure stability in price for future energy consumption, and create new jobs.