WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky announced Wednesday an agreement with Democrats to hold a Senate vote on construction of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline.
The Keystone pipeline would transport 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Republicans say the pipeline would help to counteract both insufficient domestic oil supplies and reduce dependence on less reliable foreign sources. Proponents of the project have wanted to move forward since at least 2009. With Republicans now in control of the Senate – and enough Democrats signed on to support the project – a vote in the Senate is now in the works, and a vote in the House of Representatives would follow, sending the bill to the President’s desk.
“The American people have elected a new Republican Majority in the Senate and that has already made a difference. I was glad to see that Senate Democrats have finally backed off trying to obstruct construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, the single largest shovel-ready project in America. I hope this post-election conversion on Keystone signals Democrat cooperation on a whole host of other energy bills they have blocked, and whose passage would help to make America more energy-independent.”
President Obama has been delaying the Keystone Pipeline project for years, the GOP says, “while also denying its job-creation benefits. At every turn, this Administration has made it clear: protecting the liberal left’s anti-carbon obsession is more important than creating new American jobs. The Keystone Pipeline would create tens of thousands of jobs that support our communities and strengthen our economy. And it would put America on a path towards energy independence.”
Iowa Senator Charles Grassley has been especially critical of the President’s unwillingness to approve the project. He has said that “President Obama’s decision is stunning for how it favors extreme environmentalism over job creation … the reality that President Obama has flat out rejected the priorities of grass-roots Americans for job creation and energy production that’s close to home means Congress needs to act. Whether or not the U.S. approves the Keystone pipeline project, the oil will be produced, and if it doesn’t come here, China likely will get it. So, it’s impossible to see how President Obama could deny that the Keystone pipeline project is in the national interest.”
A lot of good paying jobs depend on this passing.
The only reason they are getting this started right now is to get the senator from Louisiana elected because this bill has been sitting on reids desk for a couple years now.
@maybe-I don’t think it will help the woman from Louisiana. She has already lost and just won’t admit it. Her record show she votes with Obama no matter what the people want. Obama will probably veto this anyway but that will just be another issue that will put down the Democrats. The unions are eve lining up against him and this will be just another straw.
They expect obama to veto it thats why they feel comfortable in submitting the bill just to get her elected.
@maybe-They are counting on the voters being stupid again. I think they are smarter than that. They have really gone to hell with the last bit of crap over Obamacare. Even the Democrats can’t defend Gruber’s comment about the voting public being stupid. Pelosi being the liar that she is, is denying she even knows who he is. This after praising the hell out of him when they were setting up the monstrosity. She forgets (being simple minded) that everything is recorded now.
Just a taxpayer funded project to get canadian oil to the gulf to be exported to china.. Duped again!
badpontiac, you really have no clue do you? China has already offered to take the oil if the Keystone was not built, that is the reason the pipeline is so important to us. Yes, the refined oil will be sold on the market, but it will be less expensive for us to use the refined product that to ship it.