WASHINGTON - U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor joined lawmakers, labor groups and the Canadian ambassador at a news conference Tuesday to urge President Barack Obama to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
The pipeline, developed by TransCanada, has been under review for five years.
“It’s just time to build the pipeline. It’s time for the president to say yes,” the Democrat from Little Rock said.
A State Department report released last week raised no major environmental objections to the pipeline, which would ship as many as 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada to Texas Gulf Coast refineries, after passing through North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
With the report’s release, the project now awaits a 30-day comment period and a review by Secretary of State John Kerry and other agencies. Obama has 90 days to decide on the pipeline. A section of the pipeline running from Oklahoma to Texas has already been built.
U.S. Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., said at the news conference he would support congressional action if the Obama administration doesn’t quickly allow the pipeline.
“We need this approved 91 days from now,” he said. “Nebraska’s ready.”
Pryor said he doesn’t have a date in mind.
“I don’t think there’s a real time line on this but I do think that the Senate does want to see this get done,” Pryor said. “I want to keep this moving.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also said it is time for a decision.
“I don’t know how many other studies we could possibly have,” he told reporters.
Environmental groups have raised concerns about laying an 800-mile oil pipeline through the center of the United States and have threatened civil disobedience if the pipeline is approved.
Pryor said he understands the environmental concerns, especially after Exxon Mobil’s Pegasus pipeline ruptured in the Northwoods neighborhood of Mayflower in 2013.
An estimated 210,000 gallons of heavy crude oil spilled into the residential neighborhood, three drainage ditches and a cove of Lake Conway. The cleanup continues.
“We know what can happen when a pipeline goes bad, but we also know that the technology is so much better today and the construction methods are better today, the materials are better today,” Pryor said.
The United States is already home to more than 160,868 miles of oil pipeline, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
“Some of us are wondering why it is taking so long to build another 800 miles,” Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said. The “time for study is over.”
The oil will be moved by truck or train if the United States doesn’t approve the pipeline, Pryor said.
“There is no question that the pipeline is the cheapest, safest way to transport this stuff,” Pryor said. “You always have the risk of a spill but the risk is much, much smaller in a pipeline.”
Some lawmakers have suggested tying the approval of the pipeline to raising the nation’s debt limit.
Pryor wouldn’t rule out connecting approval for the pipeline to raising the debt ceiling, saying he’d need to read a bill, but said he’d rather the two issues be considered separately.
“My guess is when you start mixing those two, you start running into a lot of political quagmires, in the Senate especially,” he said. “It causes a lot of heartburn on both sides of the aisle.”
After Pryor’s participation in the pro-pipeline news conference was announced, his likely 2014 opponent called on Pryor to support the pipeline.
“If Sen. Mark Pryor wants to help create good-paying American jobs, he should start by demanding a vote in the Senate to approve the construction of this pipeline,” stated the press release from the campaign of U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 02/05/2014