Keystone pipeline bill clears Congress

Measure facing Obama veto vow

Fellow lawmakers applaud Sen. John Hoeven (center), R-N.D., sponsor of the Senate’s Keystone XL pipeline bill, as they urge President Barack Obama to sign legislation backing the project that was approved in the Senate and House on Wednesday.
Fellow lawmakers applaud Sen. John Hoeven (center), R-N.D., sponsor of the Senate’s Keystone XL pipeline bill, as they urge President Barack Obama to sign legislation backing the project that was approved in the Senate and House on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON -- The Republican-controlled Congress cleared a bill Wednesday to construct the Keystone XL oil pipeline, setting up a confrontation with President Barack Obama, who has threatened to veto the measure.

The House passed the bill on a 270-152 vote, endorsing changes made by the Senate that stated climate change was real and not a hoax, and that oil sands should no longer be exempt from a tax used to clean up oil spills.

Arkansas' all-Republican House delegation voted in favor of the bill and urged the president to sign it. Obama has said he opposes the bill because it would circumvent his administration's review of the $8 billion pipeline.

Rep. French Hill, whose central Arkansas district contains the facility where piping for the project was built, spoke for the bill on the House floor Wednesday.

"The president has no more excuses to deny the completion of the Keystone XL, and I urge him to rescind his veto threat of this critical energy and infrastructure bill," he said. "It is time to approve this project."

Hundreds of miles of pipe for the project were created at the Welspun Tubular LLC facility on Frazier Pike in Little Rock.

About 350 miles of pipe remain in storage there, and loading the existing pipes would put 50 or more people to work and support close to 200 more positions, including janitorial, maintenance and transport jobs, Welspun USA President David Delie has said.

Rep. Rick Crawford of Jonesboro said in a statement, "When this bill is delivered to the President's desk, I hope he takes seriously the will of the American people -- to finish the job."

Only one Republican, Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, voted against the measure, while 29 Democrats backed it.

The bill's passage shows the House and Senate are working together, said Rep. Steve Womack of Rogers.

"President Obama has no more excuses, and I urge him to work with us and sign this commonsense, bipartisan bill into law," he said in a statement.

Rep. Bruce Westerman of Hot Springs called the bill long overdue.

"The president has indicated that special interests are more important to him than energy independence. It is my hope that he will back down from his veto threat and do the right thing for Arkansas and America," he said in a statement.

Neither the House nor the Senate has enough votes to overcome a veto. Supporters were already strategizing on how to secure the pipeline's approval using other legislative means.

"The evidence is in. The case ought to be closed," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota, the chief Republican sponsor of the bill, said in a statement "we will continue to press for approval by attaching an approval measure to another bill, perhaps an energy bill or must-pass appropriations legislation."

For Republicans, the bill's passage capped weeks of debate on a top priority after they took control of Congress last month. Hours before the vote, they prodded Democrats who did not take their side. House Republicans, who have debated and passed numerous measures on the pipeline only to have them die in the Senate, claimed victory.

Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said she was a having a "holy cow" moment.

"This kind of support ... It doesn't get any better than this," she said.

Democrats, meanwhile, called the Keystone effort a waste of time but said the bill's provisions on global warming and oil spills marked progress for Republicans on those issues.

Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., said the bill was another example of Republicans prioritizing legislation to demonstrate a message, regardless of its chances of becoming law. The vote Wednesday marked the 11th attempt by Republicans to advance the pipeline.

"The last few years have been like a hamster on a wheel -- spinning and spinning and not getting anywhere," said Hastings, who at one point held up a toy that looked like the rodent.

TransCanada Corp., a Calgary-based pipeline company, applied to build Keystone XL in September 2008. While a southern section is up and running, the northern leg needs a presidential permit because it crosses the U.S.-Canada border.

The pipeline has come to symbolize the differences between the parties on energy and environmental matters.

Republicans and the oil industry have argued the $8 billion infrastructure project is about jobs and boosting energy security by importing oil from a friendly neighbor and shipping it to domestic refineries subject to more stringent environmental regulations.

Democrats, and their environmental allies, have characterized it as a gift to the oil industry that would increase emissions that would worsen climate change and would subject parts of the country to the risks of an oil spill, with little economic benefit because the oil and its refined product would be exported abroad.

The pipeline would connect Canada's tar sands with Gulf coast refineries that specialize in processing heavy crudes.

A January 2014 analysis found that, with or without the pipeline, the tar sands would be developed, and thus the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from them would enter the atmosphere anyway.

But the Environmental Protection Agency said this month that the analysis has to be revisited because lower oil prices could make the pipeline more of a catalyst for climate change than the State Department initially predicted. A letter from the Canadian ambassador said the EPA's assessment was flawed.

While Obama pledged to veto the Keystone bill on process grounds, he hasn't indicated what his decision will be on the project itself. The president has said he won't approve the project if he believes it would "significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution."

Hours before the pipeline vote, Sen. James Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, held the first of many hearings on the Obama administration's plans to control for the first time the pollution blamed for climate change from the nation's power plants.

And the House plans to unveil a large energy bill next week.

Democrats, too, want to move on.

"This Congress has much work to do on energy," said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., the top Democrat on the House Energy committee. Pallone said it was time to stop wasting time on another doomed Keystone bill.

Amash, the lone Republican to vote against the bill, objected to the addition of a Senate bill on energy efficiency, arguing that it further empowered the EPA.

Information for this article was contributed by Dina Cappiello of The Associated Press; by Jim Snyder and Billy House of Bloomberg News; and by Sarah D. Wire of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

A Section on 02/12/2015

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