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Obama Threatens Veto on Keystone XL Pipeline
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
January 6, 2015
All Rights Reserved.
Showing that he’s tone-deaf to the reality of a
GOP-controlled Congress, President Barack Obama picked the wrong battle,
threatening to veto the last leg of the Keystone XL Pipeline, designed to
complete the flow of Canadian tar-sands oil from Hardisty, Alberta to Houston,
Texas. Obama has the perfect chance
to turn a new leaf with a new Congress but chooses confrontation on a wasted
controversy, debating the environmental impact of a hermetically sealed oil
pipeline. Most voters agree with
the GOP that making it cheaper and easier to deliver Canadian oil shale to Gulf
refineries is a good thing, despite help it gives to the Canadian fracking
industry. With oil prices
plummeting to under $50 a barrel, it’s getting harder to turn-a-profit in a
labor-intensive oil shale industry designed to reverse the Western Hemisphere’s
dependence on Middle Eastern oil.
Critics like New York Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) insist the Keystone
XL’s final leg from Baker, Montana to Steele City, Nebraska and on to Houston,
Texas would cause environmental damage, despite no such damage from its original
route from Hardisty, Alberta to Steele City, Nebraska, then to Cushing,
Oklahoma. Threatening a veto now on
the final leg of the Keystone XL picks the wrong battle with GOP precisely at a
time when voters look for both sides to final common ground. When the Keystone XL was put to its
last vote in the U.S. Senate Nov. 18, it failed by one vote. When the 2015 puts it to a new vote,
it will pass overwhelmingly.
Vetoing the bill would create a backlash for Democrats, demonstrating to voters
that divided government doesn’t work.
When Democrats make their pitch for another go with the White House in
2016, Keystone XL will offer proof of partisan gridlock.
Instead of threatening a veto, the White House should heed the 2014
Midterm election that sent Democrats packing from the U.S. Senate. Voters acted to put the GOP in
charge of the Senate to get more done on Capitol Hill. If Obama vetoes the Keystone XL, it
will make a strong statement to voters that divided government doesn’t work. Whatever the claims of
environmentalists, it’s not common sense how finishing a the last of a four
stage pipeline project would trash the environment in its final phase. “If this bill passes the Congress,
the president wouldn’t sign it,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest,
claiming the State Department hasn’t finished its environmental impact study. Keystone XL’s two sponsors Sen. Joe
Manchin (D-W.V.) and and Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) signaled there’s plenty of
votes in the GOP-dominated House and Senate to pass the legislation.
Whether or not Manchin nad Hoeven gets the bill in shape for Obama to
sign is anyone’s guess. GOP
strategists would like to use the Keystone XL as proof the president can’t
govern and divided government doesn’t work.
“The Congress on a bipartisan basis is saying we are approving this
project,” said Hoeven, suggesting that Obama might attach Keystone XL to a
broader pork-barrel bill that includes earmarks for Democrat pet projects. “It doesn’t bode well for relationships between the White House and Capitol Hill,” said
Jack Gerrard, head of the American Petroleum Institute. Whatever happens with the price of
crude oil, it’s always better for U.S. refineries in the Gulf to have more
access to oil. Finishing the
Keystone XL project, like the other three completed phases, has minimal
environmental impact, other that saving tons of carbon emissions from petroleum
tankers.
Before the GOP gets bent out of shape, Schumer and Sen. Debbie Stabenow
(D-Mich.) would like amendments that prohibit the import of oil running through
the pipeline, expecting pipeline components to be made in the U.S., seeking
every pipeline job matched by clean energy jobs.
Whether or not Democrats demands can be met is anyone’s guess. Adding conditions to an otherwise straightforward bill has its problems, especially a
kind of blackmail under a veto threat.
If Democrats are willing to go along with conditions, they should be
willing to sign on without conditions.
Suggesting that ongoing litigation prevents the president from signing
Keystone XL amounts to a smokescreen.
Environmental groups could easily drop the lawsuit, paving the way to the
bill’s unencumbered passage. White
House officials should look at the political gains from passing the legislation.
When the Keystone Bill failed in the Senate last November, it cost Sen.
Mary Landrieu (D-La.) her Senate seat to Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.). Fiddling around with amendments, the White House risks more partisan gridlock on Capitol
Hill. Without finding during the
next year some bipartisan agreement, the White House makes the GOP case that the
country can’t elect another Democrat president without more partisan gridlock. If former First Lady, U.S. Senator
and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee,
Republicans will no doubt argue in 2016 that no Democrat is fit to govern. Before it’s too late, Obama needs to
consider the benefits of passing the Keystone XL Pipeline without imposing more
pork-barrel spending. Given minimal
environmental impact of the first three stages, approving the last phase should
be good for all.
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