Senate Approves Keystone, Bill Faces Obama Veto

The Senate approved the Keystone XL oil pipeline on Thursday afternoon, a victory for Republicans in the new Congress. President Barack Obama has vowed he would veto the bill if it passed both the House and Senate.

Senate passed the bill with a 62-36 vote, which is five short of the number needed to overturn a presidential veto. All Republicans voted in favor of the bill as well as nine Democrats.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expressed his relief that the Senate approved Keystone. He said it would be good for the middle class and “pump billions” of dollars into the economy.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who is chair of the energy committee, described the bill as a win “for jobs in this country, for energy security, for good trade relationships with our neighborhood in Canada.”

Obama has questioned how many jobs Keystone would actually create. He maintains that the pipeline mainly benefits the company who wants to build it, TransCanada Corp. Though building Keystone would create thousands of construction jobs, they would only be temporary. The State Department claims only 40 works would operate the pipeline once it was built.

The State Department has said it will conclude a final assessment of the project, with the comments from other federal agencies, for President Obama by Feb. 2. After the assessment is reviewed, the Obama administration will issue a decision.

Debate over 41 proposed amendments to the bill lasted most of January, and only a few passed. One amendment, proposed by Murkowski, requires companies transporting crude from Canada’s oil sands to contribute to an oil spill fund. Another amendment from John Cornyn (R-Texas) ensures constitutional protections for landowners against the use of eminent domain.

Democratic amendments that were rejected included requiring oil from Keystone to remain in the U.S. and for the pipeline to be constructed from American-made steel.

Now that the Senate has approved Keystone, House Republicans have a decision to make. They can either vote on the bill with the Senate amendments as is or work out changes in conference talks.

[Photo Credit: shannonpatrick17]

Senate Approves Keystone, Bill Faces Obama Veto