Keystone Pipeline Vote Expected From U.S. House

* Wednesday vote is fourth for House on pipeline

* White House has threatened to veto bill

* Rep Lee Terry-"It may not be the last rodeo."

By Roberta Rampton

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Keystone XL project for the fourth time in two years on Wednesday, but the Nebraska Republican who has championed the oil pipeline from Canada knows it well may not be the last.

The pipeline, put on hold by President Barack Obama earlier this year, has taken on an outsized political profile heading into the November elections as Republicans use it to attack Obama's economic and energy policies.

"I've been through the Keystone rodeo before," said U.S. Representative Lee Terry, expressing optimism that, this time, a bill he drafted just might lead to a deal to advance TransCanada's $7 billion pipeline.

But Terry, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce committee, also recognized that his bill, expected to pass the House on Wednesday as part of a short-term extension of highway and infrastructure funding, faces a rough ride ahead.

The bill would strip Obama of his authority to rule on the pipeline. The White House said on Tuesday that Obama would veto the bill, if it makes it to his desk.

The Democratic president, who has backed the southernmost portion of the line from Oklahoma to Texas, p ut a hold on the rest of the project earlier this year, insisting a portion of the pipeline in Nebraska needs more environmental review.

"We'll keep swinging," Terry vowed in an interview. "It may not be the last rodeo."


TOP TARGET FOR GREEN GROUPS

Environmental groups have vehemently opposed Keystone because it would bring in crude from Canada's oil sands, which they argue is dirtier than other types of crude oil.

They are concerned about the risk posed by spills from the pipeline, have contested estimates of jobs created by the project, and have raised awareness about the growth in U.S. exports of refined oil products.

Last year, thousands of protesters encircled the White House, and hundreds were arrested.

The state of Nebraska was also concerned that the pipeline's original route went through the sensitive Sandhills region and over a major aquifer.

The state government now supports a new route proposed by TransCanada. Some groups in the state said they plan a legal challenge.


SENATE COULD BUCK BILL

Terry said he expects the Republican-led House will pass a bill later on Wednesday to extends funding for highway and other infrastructure projects until the end of September.

Attached to that bill is his text, which would transfer authority for approving the pipeline to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and require the regulator to quickly issue permits.

The focus would then turn to the Democratic-controlled Senate, which would need to agree to the short-term fix on highway funding.

In March, the Senate agreed on a two-year, $109 billion plan for transportation. The House has been unable to agree on a long-term deal.

The Senate considered adding approval for Keystone to its highway bill, but the measure failed in a 56-42 vote, four short of the 60 votes needed to pass. Obama took the unusual step of calling some senators directly before the vote, asking them to reject the proposal.

Still, 11 Democratic senators voted for the plan. Terry thinks that negotiations on a short-term highway funding bill that includes Keystone could pass a House-Senate conference committee, and that could make Obama rethink the veto threat.

"If we could get enough votes in the Senate, I could almost guarantee the White House would become more reasonable," Terry said.

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Comments

[artleads]

11:24 AM on 04/20/2012

Does anyone have a list of which Democrats voted for this? They need to join the Rebublican party.

[Larry Luntsford]

10:39 AM on 04/19/2012

Republicans favor running Canadian oil through the United Sates, where it will be sold to Asian markets. All profits will go to Canadian interests, while all risks for spills and environmental pollution, will be paid for by American taxpayers. Yay!

But, at least, Americans will get a fair share of that raw crude, right? No. Republicans have turned down a bill that would have guaranteed that a portion of the Canadian oil would stay in America.

Huh? Then what would Keystone do for us? It would guarantee fat campaign contributions to Republican Senators and Congressman during the 2012 campaign cycle, while giving American taxpayers a big, fat, financial enema! Yay!

[mnyegele]

10:00 AM on 04/19/2012

KeystoneXL is a big con game.

TransCanada wants to extend KeystoneXL to Port Arthur, Texas for ONE reason only. They plan to export all of the oil. We won't get a drop. Twice, Democratic Congressmen Gerry Connolly and Ed Markey tried to attach amendments to keep Keystone oil in the United States.

Twice these amendments were blocked by the GOP.

We of course have no guarantee that the KeystoneXL Pipeline is safe. We know that a similar pipeline ruptured in Michigan, causing a number of people along the Kalamazoo river to lose their homes. So we are risking our environment so that TransCanada can export its oil.

The only big winners in this deal is the GOP.

[cosmicdart]

08:16 AM on 04/19/2012

The Keystone XL project is a jobs bill in a sense in that it will created hundreds of thousands of hazardous waste disposal jobs when tanker ships filled with tar muck sink in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans covering the coast of California, Florida, and Britain with toxic tar sand muck. We'll also need more fish farms to replace our loss of mucked-out marine life in the world's oceans.

[pdjmoo]

07:27 PM on 04/18/2012

There are billions already invested in this monster and they are charging ahead anyway regardless of "permission" from Congress. Don't think for one minute that they will walk away with their tails between their legs on this one. Oil is still king and until the oil/gas industry sees a way of corralling, producing and "owning" the new green energy (where we must ultimately go) they will fight to the finish, polluting and killing us all. But then "sustainable" "Renewable" is not obsolence profitable. It is all about nothing but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$... The oil industry is not a labour intensive industry, so don't buy the "jobs" card unless they prepared to warrant a guarantee !! We should lock our politicians in a bank vault and let them eat all the money they want. :-))

[GirlUsingBrain]

05:23 PM on 04/18/2012

Learn the truth about the pipeline:


http://www.tarsandsaction.org/spread-the-word/key-facts-keystone-xl/


http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/22/news/economy/keystone-pipeline/index.htm


You can even go to the State Department's website to review copies of the original documents submitted.

[KsAPigButt]

05:04 PM on 04/18/2012

Without even checking, I know Mary Landrieu of Louisiana was one of the Democratic Senators to vote in favor of the bill.

As for them thinking that if passed by both House and Senate they would "guarantee the White House would be more reasonable" and that the President would "rethink a veto", I am *counting* on the President to make them eat their words and choke on their guarantees.

[cajundave]

10:44 AM on 04/19/2012

I'm from Louisiana, and I had the very same thought. She is owned by the oil companies and the southern part of the state is completely dependent on the oil companies. This pipe thine is a political distraction aimed solely at making the president look bad. If the Republicans were truely interested in creating jobs, they would have worked with the Democrats earlier, when the president introduced the jobs bill. They filibustered and shot every part of it down.

[KsAPigButt]

03:50 PM on 04/19/2012

So is Vitter. So proud to be in a state that let an oil refinery be built smack in the middle state capital city! Not!

[gochenaur8]

10:53 AM on 04/19/2012

I am still banking on President Obama. The republicans have actually held a gun to each and every American, to get what they wanted and because of the damage it would have caused to the middle class, has bent to get by something that would not be as drastic to the American people. Now the GOP want to go around the back of the President, but even that bill needs his signature. Just what kind of a game are the republicans playing. They say this pipeline will create 2 million new jobs. It won't create that many and if it only created half, they would just last for a short period of time. They want the people to believe that this oil is going to bring the price at the pumps down, it won't. The republicans have taken so much money from this group and made so many promises to them, that they can't cover all the bets. President Obama isn't going to budge, they have nothing to hold over his head or the peoples heads. If this whole issue cost President Obama the election, then the people that voted republicans will come back later and say, the republicans lied to us again. President Obama is trying to help this country, he in his time as President has shown that he cares about the country and the people and is one of the best this country has had in many years.

[grappler1987]

03:01 PM on 04/18/2012

"have raised awareness about the growth in U.S. exports of refined oil products."

Exports are better than imports. Exports give us the jobs and cash.

[lajoan47]

10:03 AM on 04/19/2012

At what cost? To the destruction of our environment? The Keystone is not the golden egg. Besides if the Republicons are for it, it will not be good for We the People.

[grappler1987]

12:16 PM on 04/19/2012

At what cost? For imports, it is easy to show the cost. For oil, it is about $300B per year.

But yes, just living produces a cost to our environment. Farming costs the environment too but no one is shutting down farming. We simply do our best to farm while mitigating cost.