Thread: Keystone XL pipeline bill clears Senate hurdle despite veto threat

Congress set to pass bill approving Keystone XL pipeline

By DINA CAPPIELLO 3 hours ago



WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled Congress is set to send a bill approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline to President Barack Obama, who has vowed to veto it.

Related Stories

1. Senate passes bill approving Keystone XL oil pipeline Associated Press
2. EPA: Keystone XL's climate impacts need to be revisited Associated Press
3. Keystone XL advances in U.S. Senate, faces Obama veto Reuters
4. The Senate has passed just four amendments to the Keystone pipeline billMarketWatch
5. Keystone XL bill passes in Senate, faces Obama veto Reuters

The House is expected to pass the bill easily Wednesday, capping weeks of debate over one of Republicans' top priorities — a bill authorizing the construction of the much-delayed pipeline. Yet support in both the Senate and House has not been enough to override a veto, and backers of the bill said they are already strategizing ways to get it approved by other means, such as attaching it to a broader energy or spending bill.

The pipeline has exposed larger divisions between environmentalists concerned about global warming and potential oil spills against supporters who argue that the $8 billion project will create jobs and boost U.S. energy security. One of the measures added to the bill by the Senate states that climate change is not a hoax, which could make some conservative Republicans think twice.

"We're going to continue to keep our promise to the people by finishing our work on the Keystone pipeline," House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio said Wednesday before the vote. Boehner said the president was listening to "left-fringe extremists" rather than the American people.

"The president needs to listen to the American people and say 'yes, let's build the Keystone pipeline,'" Boehner said.

The pipeline is the first of many standoffs expected between Obama and Republicans on energy and environment.
View gallery

Pipes for underground fuel transport for TransCanada Corp.�s Keystone XL pipeline lie in a field in …

As the House prepared to vote on the bill, the Senate environment panel on Wednesday planned to hold its first hearing examining the Obama administration's plans to curb heat-trapping carbon dioxide from power plants. The initiative is the cornerstone of Obama's efforts to curb global warming.

The House is also expected to unveil a larger energy bill next week.
Obama has rejected previous attempts to force his hand on the Keystone XL pipeline, saying he wanted the review process to play out and to ensure the pipeline wouldn't exacerbate global warming.

The pipeline was first proposed in 2008.

While the State Department's January 2014 analysis said Canada's tar sands would be developed regardless of whether the pipeline was approved — meaning the pipeline itself would not increase greenhouse gas emissions — the Environmental Protection Agency has said that analysis needs to be revisited because of lower oil prices.

Senate Majority Mitch McConnell of Kentucky urged Obama to sign the bill on Wednesday, saying it was "common sense."

"So Americans are urging President Obama not to interfere in the review process for political reasons any longer," McConnell said. "Americans are urging the president to finally heed scientific conclusions his own State Department already reached."

Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota, the chief Republican sponsor of the bill in the Senate, also called on the president to approve the project. The pipeline would carry oil harvested from Canada's tar sands to Nebraska, where it would connect with existing pipelines to refineries along the Texas Gulf Coast.

The pipeline would also carry some of the oil from North Dakota's oil boom

"The president needs to work with Congress in a bipartisan way and approve the Keystone XL pipeline project for the American people," Hoeven said.

http://news.yahoo.com/congress-set-p...-politics.html

Boehner: Obama siding with ‘anarchists’ on Keystone


House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio gestures during his news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington,Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015. Boehner announced that Pope Francis will address a joint session of the US Congress on Sept. 24, 2015. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez ... more >

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Wednesday, February 11, 2015

House Speaker John A. Boehner accused President Obama of “listening to … anarchists” in his threat to veto the bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, ahead of a final vote in Congress later Wednesday on the long-stalled project.

“We build pipelines all around American every single day,” Mr. Boehner said after a closed-door meeting with his GOP colleagues.

Mr. Obama has vowed to veto the pipeline, saying he wants to keep the final decision on whether to build Keystone for himself — though he has given no indication on when that decision, which has been pending for more than five years, might come.

The bill passed the Senate last month and will go to the House for final approval Wednesday afternoon. Polling shows the project popular with the public, and it has support from some labor unions who usually back Mr. Obama but who say the pipeline is safe and good for jobs.

Environmentalists, who make up another important part of the president’s political coalition, say they fear the pipeline will solidify fossil fuels as part of the U.S. economy, which they view as a step back in their fight against climate change. They have declared Keystone to be a key test of his commitment to their issues.

That prompted Mr. Boehner to say Mr. Obama’s priorities were misplaced.

“Instead of listening to the people, the president is standing with a bunch of left-wing extremists and anarchists,” Mr. Boehner said.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...#ixzz3RT1N0Ynx

“Instead of listening to the people, the president is standing with a bunch of left-wing extremists and anarchists,” Mr. Boehner said.

Actually he's standing with the cartels behind illegal immigration and the Mexican government, who can't stand the idea of Canada realizing benefits from their border with US or Americans receiving additional domestic supplies of oil and gas, because this dips into the amount of oil purchased from Mexico.

Obama could care less about the environment or climate change. All he wants to do is any and everything that will weaken the United States, grow the government, increase the debt, deflate our wages and net disposable income, and create unemployment and poverty among American citizens. That's why he would oppose the pipeline extension that picks up American oil but issues amnesty for illegal aliens that lays off American workers. He hates free enterprise, despises individual freedom, and can't stand American citizens who cherish both.

What a huge disappointment this Presidency has been for the American People and the United States.

Canada accuses EPA of ‘distortion’ on Keystone pipeline

PAUL KORING

WASHINGTON — The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Feb. 11 2015, 2:27 PM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Feb. 11 2015, 5:35 PM EST


The Canadian government attacked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday over its assertion that the Keystone XL pipeline might worsen greenhouse gas emissions.
In a letter signed by Gary Doer, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, the government accused the EPA of “significant distortion and omission.”

MORE RELATED TO THIS STORY

• TransCanada CEO: EPA’s call for further Keystone XL review a delay tactic
• TransCanada CEO says Canada needs to resolve conflicts over pipelines
• U.S. House leader says State Department stonewalling on Keystone

MEDIA

PDF: Gary Doer's letter to John Kerry



WATCH

Video: Keystone XL threatens to become budget battle


VIDEO

Video: Jim Prentice promotes Keystone XL pipeline in Washington


It was just the latest evidence of how seriously the controversial pipeline has soured the relationship between Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government and President Barack Obama’s administration.

Following a spirited defence of Canada’s track record on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, Mr. Doer wrote: “The EPA chose to ignore that the oil sands are produced in the only jurisdiction supplying oil to the United States that has imposed a carbon fee which is used to fund clean energy technologies.”

The letter, made public only hours before the House of Representatives was to vote on approving the Keystone XL project, makes it clear that Canada will not sit on the sidelines as an increasingly hostile showdown looms between Mr. Obama and Congress, where Republicans now hold commanding majorities in both the Senate and the House.

A House vote approving Keystone, following on the heels of the Senate’s passage of approval legislation last month, will trigger a promised veto by Mr. Obama.

The President has also vowed to veto any legislation that attempts to strip him of his authority to decide on the long-delayed $8-billion project, which opponents argue would further foul the planet by spurring development of Alberta’s vast, carbon-heavy, oil sands reserves.

The House of Representatives was expected to vote overwhelmingly on Wednesday to approve just such a bill.

However, the Republicans in both the House and Senate, even when Democratic supporters of Keystone XL are added, lack the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto.

“We’re going to continue to keep our promise to the people by finishing our work on the Keystone pipeline,” House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, said Wednesday before the vote.

He accused Mr. Obama of turning his back on ordinary Americans who back the pipeline. “Instead of listening to people, the President is standing with a bunch of left-fringe extremists and anarchists.”

Mr. Doer sent Canada’s letter on Tuesday to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. He opened by saying, “I am quite disappointed” by the EPA comments as part of the multi-agency assessment of Keystone.

He accused the EPA of ignoring a decade of Canadian success cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The agency is using 2005 figures “two years before iPhones existed, completely neglecting the innovation and emissions reductions that have since occurred in the oil sands,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, TransCanada Corp. launched its own attack on EPA, which has raised doubts about the company’s insistence that Keystone XL will not spur further development of the oil sands.

“We also reject the EPA’s inference that at lower oil prices, Keystone XL will increase the rate of oil sands production and greenhouse gas emissions,” Russ Girling, TransCanada’s president and chief executive officer, said in a letter released Wednesday.

Mr. Girling has been scathing about the President’s increasingly negative comments suggesting that Keystone XL provides little benefit to U.S. consumers.

“Understand what this project is: It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land down to the Gulf where it will be sold everywhere else,” Mr. Obama said late last year although he insists he has yet to make up his mind as to whether Keystone XL serves that U.S. national interest and won’t worsen global warming, the criteria he has publicly laid out for making his decision.

Mr. Girling lampoons the “notion that we’re going to export this oil through the United States to China.” In a December interview with Bloomberg, he said that portraying Keystone XL as an export pipeline was “all about fear-mongering.”

Despite insisting that the 830,000 barrels funnelled daily to the Gulf coast from Alberta would not be exported, TransCanada executives have refused to provide such assurances when under oath at congressional hearings.

Opponents of Keystone, especially environmental groups, have transformed the Canadian pipeline into a litmus test of Mr. Obama’s integrity in his repeated claims that global warming poses a grave and growing threat to future generations.

The argue that Keystone will provide a cheap export route that will – for decades – make further expansion of Alberta’s oil sands economically feasible.

Mr. Girling says Keystone will make no difference. “It is clear that building or not building Keystone XL will not cause production to go up or down, nor does the pipeline significantly exacerbate the problem of GHG emissions,” he said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...ticle22914580/

You know I totally support our EPA, which was a Republican initiative during the Nixon Administration, just as OSHA was as well. But when EPA chooses to get involved in the politics of taking action against a pipeline, that's no different than any other pipeline, that does the same thing as all oil pipelines which is carry oil to refineries and markets, then it has overstepped its bounds. If there is no clear on-going risk from the pipeline, then EPA should not be creating excuses to criticize the pipeline over "global" politics. Does EPA approve solar energy production when in fact solar energy involves more toxic chemical waste than all the oil in the world? Oil is carbon, a natural product, the items used in the production of solar panels are not. When we see opinions like this coming from EPA, which is supposed to be a non-partisan, non-political agency that determines the environmental impact in the US of activities in the US based on science and tests pertaining to species, soil, water and air, then we sadly see another agency biting the dust of irrelevance due to bias and political agenda. It's such a shame to see this happen to our once great federal agencies.

http://www.alipac.us/f9/congress-giv...owdown-317527/

Good, we need a showdown, in fact, we need a bunch of showdowns. The media and information disseminating organizations like that which is good for us and our cause. Showdown big, spread it far and wide and shout it from the rooftops.

VIDEO
From Oklahoma, The Case For Keystone Pipeline Jobs

February 14, 2015| Mike Ricci

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin used this week’s Republican address to urge President Obama to stop blocking middle-class jobs and sign bipartisan legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. To help make the case, she tells the story of how the southern portion of the pipeline has already brought jobs, growth, and opportunities to her state. “Out here, that’s what Keystone is about,” Fallin says. “Not politics, not Republicans and Democrats. It’s about jobs. It’s about energy. It’s about infrastructure. And it’s about hope.”

Watch the address here and below, check out news coverage that may interest you:

Associated Press:
“Oklahoma governor calls for pipeline approval in GOP response to president's radio address”

“Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has called on President Barack Obama to approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline that would carry oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. Fallin, a Republican, issued the call Saturday in the Republican response to the president's weekly radio address.”

Tulsa World:
“Gov. Mary Fallin pushes Keystone XL in weekly nationwide GOP address”

“Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin touted the benefits of the Keystone XL pipeline in the weekly Republican address early Saturday. ‘Like most Americans,’ Fallin said after introducing herself, ‘I’m urging President Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline.’ … ‘I’m appealing to (Obama) to do the right thing, sign this bill, (and) let us finally build this pipeline,’ said Fallin. ‘Let us get our people working. Thank you for listening, and, of course, happy Valentine’s Day.’”

The Hill:
“GOP governor urges Obama to 'do the right thing' on Keystone”

“Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) is calling on President Obama to ‘do the right thing’ and approve the Keystone XL pipeline in the GOP’s weekly address.

‘Keystone has now been through more than six years of scrutiny—far more than any project of its kind—and it’s passed every test and cleared every hurdle,’ she said. … She portrayed the project as a boon for Oklahoma, saying the state will generate more than $15 million each year in tax revenues, the vast majority of which will go to public schools. She added that the pipeline’s construction has ‘helped fuel our state’s economic comeback’ and led to a 44 percent jump in pipeline transportation and construction jobs.”

Newsmax:
“Oklahoma Governor Urges Obama to OK Keystone XL Pipeline”

“The proposed Keystone XL pipeline isn't about politics, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said Saturday, it's about much-needed jobs and growth. … The project will support at least 42,000 jobs in the United States, according to the State Department, Fallin pointed out, and will allow the ‘safest, most cost-effective way to transport these resources’ while allowing the nation to ‘continue building our energy future and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.’”

ABC News Radio:
“Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin Calls for Obama to Approve Keystone XL”

“Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma gave this week’s GOP address, calling on President Obama to abandon his promise to veto any legislation approving the Keystone XL pipeline. Fallin notes the 42,000 jobs the project would create, as well as the benefit that the approved pipeline in her home state of Oklahoma has had for the economy. The pipeline, she says, is not about statistics or politics. ‘It’s about jobs. It’s about energy.

It’s about infrastructure. It’s about hope,’ Fallin said.

‘That’s why I’m appealing to [Obama] to do the right thing, sign the bill, let us finally build this pipeline.’”

See more at: http://www.speaker.gov/video/weekly-....TxcIMarY.dpuf

Exporting Energy Security: Keystone XL Exposed

OIL CHANGE INTERNATIONAL, SEPTEMBER 2011

OVERVIEW

TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline is a $7 billion project to bring heavy, sour crude oil from tar sands production in Alberta, Canada to Port Arthur, Texas for refining. It has sparked an ongoing struggle as advocates and opponents of the project make their case in various ways to the Obama Administration.

Among the most oft repeated talking points by industry and their allies is the idea that Keystone XL is necessary for American energy security, and that its construction will help wean America of its dependence on Mideast oil. But the idea that Keystone XL will decrease America's dependence on foreign oil is demonstrably false.

To issue a presidential permit to the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, the Obama Administration's State Department must find that the pipeline serves the national interest. This report demonstrates compellingly why it does not. On August 25, 2011, Robert Jones, a spokesperson for TransCanada declared: "The U.S. has a decision to make, [d]o they want to import oil from Canada or get conflict oil from OPEC nations?"

On the surface this notion has a clear, if facile, appeal. But an understanding of the changing realities of the oil market in the United States and globally, and a close scrutiny of the oil companies that stand to profit from the pipeline, reveal a completely different story. In fact:

1. The Keystone XL pipeline is an export pipeline. The Gulf Coast refiners at the end of the pipeline's route are focused on expanding exports, and the nature of the tar sands crude Keystone XL delivers enhances their capacity to do so.

2. Valero, the top beneficiary of the Keystone XL pipeline, has recently explicitly detailed an export strategy to its investors. The nation's top refiner has locked in at least 20 percent of the pipeline's capacity, and, because its refinery in Port Arthur is within a Foreign Trade Zone, the company will accomplish its export strategy tax free.

3. The oil market has changed markedly in the last several years, with U.S. demand decreasing, and U.S. production increasing for the first time in 40 years. Higher fuel economy standards and slow economic growth have led to a decline in U.S. gasoline demand, while technological advances have opened up new sources in the United States. Increasingly, U.S. refiners are turning to export.

The oil market is fundamentally global. The only way to reduce dependence on foreign oil is to reduce dependence on all oil.These facts reveal the important truth that the Keystone XL pipeline would not in fact enhance U.S. energy security at all. The construction of Keystone XL will not lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil—rather, it will feed the growing trend of exporting refined products out of the United States, thereby doing nothing to enhance energy security or to stabilize oil prices or gasoline prices at the pump. If completed, it will successfully achieve a long-term objective of Canadian tar sands producers—to gain access to export markets.

The oil market is fundamentally global. The only way to truly reduce our dependence on foreign oil is to reduce our dependence on all oil.

This report looks at data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), corporate disclosures to investors, and oil market analyst reports. This information should form the basis of the Obama Administration's deliberations on the Keystone XL pipeline. An honest assessment of the Keystone XL project will show that the oil will be exported and will not benefit U.S. consumers or any reasonable definition of the nation's interest.

http://www.policyinnovations.org/ide...ary/data/01614

Energy


State Department Says Keystone Pipeline Will Create Just 50 Jobs

By Joshua Green January 31, 2014

---

Big news this afternoon: The U.S. State Department released its long-awaited “Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement” on the Keystone XL pipeline. The findings could determine whether or not the pipeline proceeds. The State Department concluded that the project would create 42,100 temporary jobs during the two-year construction period. But the report says once the pipeline enters service, it will support only 50 U.S. jobs—35 permanent employees and 15 temporary contractors. Here’s the relevant passage:

State Department

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles...e-just-50-jobs

The pipeline will not help our economy in the long run. Besides that, who is to say most of these temporary jobs won't be held by illegal aliens? These jobs will be contracted out to private firms in the construction industry and we all know the construction industry does a fantastic job of hiring cheap illegal alien labor!