Veto looms for U.S. Congress’s push to approve Keystone
Bipartisan efforts to force U.S. President Barack Obama to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline face a near-certain veto, the White House signalled Thursday, setting the stage for more drama and delay over the plan to funnel Alberta crude across the United States to Gulf refineries.
As Congress readied bills demanding passage of the long-delayed (and now far-more-expensive) $8-billion pipeline with the President away in Asia, a confrontation loomed.
Mr. Obama “has taken a dim view of these kinds of legislative proposals in the past,” Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman said in Naypyitaw, capital of Myanmar. “Our dim view of these kinds of proposals has not changed,” he said, making clear a veto was probable. “The President’s senior advisers at the White House have recommended that he veto legislation like that,” Mr. Earnest added, referring to past congressional maneuvering to take the decision out of the President’s hands. “That has continued to be our position.”
The new flurry of Keystone XL activity on Capitol Hill comes as Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu, who is backing a Senate bill on the pipeline, makes a last-ditch effort to win her seat in a Louisiana runoff scheduled for Dec. 6. Her Republican opponent, Bill Cassidy, currently sitting in the House of Representatives, has introduced nearly identical legislation in the lower house.
“It is time for America to become energy independent and that is impossible without the Keystone pipeline and other pipelines like it,” said Ms. Landrieu, who has long championed the project. The House may deal with the legislation on Thursday. The Senate is expected to take it up next week.
But a standalone bill looks likely to be vetoed.
“I’m going to let that process play out,” Mr. Obama said last week, referring to the State Department review of Keystone. As a cross-border pipeline, authority to issue a permit is vested with the president. Mr. Obama has repeatedly delayed a decision, much to the frustration of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Keystone booster.
The project is also mired in a legal challenge in Nebraska, where a state Supreme Court decision on the legality of the right-of-way is not expected until early next year.
Mr. Obama has said he won’t approve the project unless it is proven to be in the national interest of the United States. “Is this going to be good for the American people? Is it going to be good for their pocketbook? Is it going to actually create jobs? Is it actually going to reduce gas prices that have been coming down? And is it going to be, on net, something that doesn’t increase climate change that we’re going to have to grapple with?” he said at a news conference last week after Republican gains at midterm elections gave them a majority in the Senate and thus control of both Houses of Congress.
Environmentalists who have tried to thwart the project – which is designed to funnel more than 800,000 barrels a day of Canadian oil-sands crude to refiners alongside Gulf export ports – were outraged by the latest congressional effort.
“Mary Landrieu should know better than to undermine President Obama’s climate goals and drag the Democratic Party into climate denial, solely for the fading chance of avoiding another thumping at the ballot box,” said 350 Action spokesman Karthik Ganapathy. “This vote is a farce because Keystone XL is a decision for the President, not Congress.”