Editor’s Note – Its plain to see – House Republicans are turning the heat up on Obama over the Keystone XL Pipeline. How is Obama going to nix it now that a new plan was submitted to answer the State Department’s official objections?
All this as gasoline and diesel continue to rise. Berkshire Hathaway owner Warren Buffet may have to twist some more arms, again, or risk the lucrative rail effort to ship the very same oil. No more Ben Nelson to help now Mr. Buffet, Mr. Obama, Mr. Soros!
The answer may be seen in Boehner’s recent interview – saying Obama has been “missing in action since Labor Day…he has been involved in zero legislative action….in campaign mode.”
House passes Keystone XL pipeline – again
By DARREN GOODE – Politico
It’s the issue that simply refuses to die.
House Republicans wrote a new chapter in the long-running debate over the Keystone XL pipeline Wednesday by approving it as part of a 90-day extension of surface transportation law.
Wednesday’s 293-127 vote on the transportation extension was the fifth time the House voted on the proposed oil pipeline project in the last two years.
It was the third time House Republicans adopted the language authorizing the FERC to approve the pipeline — and there’s no indication either side will let up.
“We keep fouling them off,” said Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), lead author of the FERC plan. “We’re going to keep swinging until we finally hit it.”
Critics of the pipeline say Republicans are just treading water.
“It’s a big game of chicken the Republicans are playing,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said. “They’re trying to play to their base in saying, ‘We’re going to pass it again through the House.’ But they’ve passed a lot of things through the House that haven’t gone anywhere. I have a feeling this may be among those.”
The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto the Keystone language.
“Good, let him veto it,” Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) said. “I hope that we just keep putting Keystone in there. He’ll just keep vetoing it and I think the more he does it the more he does damage to himself.”
Republicans are trying to force a showdown with the White House and Senate Democrats in a conference committee that would feature Wednesday’s House bill and a two-year, $109 billion Senate-passed transportation bill the Obama administration enthusiastically backs.
And unlike a recent filibuster on adding approval of the pipeline to the Senate bill, a conference report would only need majority support in the Senate and could not be amended.
The Keystone amendment failed last month in the Senate 56-42 — four short of the needed 60 — after Obama personally called senators to lobby them to oppose the amendment directly before the vote.
But 11 Democratic senators still voted for the amendment.
In December, Republicans secured a symbolic victory when they were able to include language in the must-pass payroll tax cut extension deal forcing Obama to make a decision within two months on granting a presidential permit to Keystone XL.
