House sends Keystone bill to White House doom
The House easily passed a bill on Wednesday that would allow construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, setting up President Barack Obama to issue the third veto of his presidency. The vote capped off a four-year Republican effort to force Obama to approve the Alberta-to-Texas oil artery, but the weeks of debate in the Senate and two votes in the House this year on the $8 billion project are likely be little more than a political exercise. Keystone backers lack the votes to override the veto. Story Continued Below Following the expected veto, the fate of the Keystone will remain solidly in the hands of the Obama administration, which has spent six years examining the oil sands pipeline project but has set no deadline to make a decision. The 270-152 vote in the House saw 29 Democrats voting in favor of the measure, while every GOP House member except one voted to push Keystone through. The White House has steadfastly opposed the pipeline bill on the grounds that it would wrongly strip authority from the president to judge whether cross-border infrastructure projects are in the national interest and would prematurely end a long-running Obama administration review that is entering its last lap at the State Department. And though Obama hasnât tipped his hand on whether he would approve the Keystone project, he has expressed skepticism over the impact on job creation that its backers have touted and questioned whether the additional fuel would remain in the U.S. to benefit consumers here. Still, Republicans held out hope that they might change Obamaâs mind before he uncaps the veto pen. â[T]he president shouldnât stand in the way of creating those good American jobs and that important energy security,â House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters before the vote. And earlier on Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) accused Obama of standing far outside the mainstream on the pipeline. âKeystone has been reviewed and approved several times; â¦ instead of listening to people, the presidentâs standing with a bunch of left-fringe extremists and anarchists,â he told reporters. Democratic leaders in both chambers are confident they can keep the Keystone bill from winning the two-thirds support needed to overcome Obamaâs threatened rejection. Overriding the president would require four more Senate Democrats and 20 more House Democrats to join the GOP. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (D-Mich.) told reporters Wednesday that he anticipates Republicans would hold a vote to try to override Obamaâs Keystone veto despite their slim chances of success. Another senior Energy and Commerce Republican, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), said that âif weâre close enough that itâs possible, Iâd be a supporter ofâ trying to override Obama. Because it is the Senateâs version of the bill that is headed to the president, however, the Senate GOP would have to win an override vote before House Republicans could take their turn. Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said Republicans were considering a vote to override a veto. âWe may very well want to test to see if there is support to override,â he said. Environmental groups are watching the drama play out in Washington with increasing confidence that the president will ultimately deny the pipeline a border-crossing permit on climate change grounds, particularly after the Environmental Protection Agency carved out new political cover for such a decision. In comments on the pipelineâs environmental assessment, EPA said State should give âadditional weightâ to whether the sharp drop in oil prices since last summer would increase the pipelineâs environmental impact, making its fate more vital to ensure future production in the carbon-rich Canadian oil sands. Stateâs environmental report issued last year had said that high oil prices provided an incentive for oil companies to ship the fuel from the Alberta oil sands via truck or train even if the pipeline were not built. But with oil prices at roughly half the level than a year ago, the pipelineâs importance to the economics of the oil sands has grown, opponents say. Obama, who has turned his attention in the past two years to reining in greenhouse gases, has said a key test for the pipeline would be whether it significantly exacerbates climate change. âOn the heels of the EPAâs confirmation that Keystone XL fails his climate test, we commend President Obama for his commitment to veto the bill and urge him to reject the pipeline permit once and for all,â Tiernan Sittenfeld, a League of Conservation Voters senior vice president, said in a statement. Secretary of State John Kerry could send Obama his recommendation on whether the pipeline is in the national interest â a broader question than environmental impact, examining Keystoneâs geopolitical and economic value â any day now. But the president is not required to make a final ruling by a certain time. âItâs an ongoing process that doesnât have a deadline,â State spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters when pressed on the departmentâs long-running Keystone review. Still, most observers expect Obama to settle on the pipelineâs future before Republicans set up another politically risky veto by trying to attach Keystone to a spending bill or other legislation considered must-pass.