Senate panel backs Keystone pipeline bill

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. Senate committee approved a bill that would bypass President Barack Obama and permit the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline, part of a drive by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to force a vote by the full Senate.

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The Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 12-10 Wednesday for legislation that would let Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. build, then operate the $5.4 billion Canada-to-U.S. oil pipeline that has been snagged in disputes for more than five years. Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Chairman Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who helped write the bill, joined all the Republicans in backing the legislation.

"This is about what our future energy policy should look like," said Landrieu, pointing to the need to boost construction employment and expand oil imports from Canada and also Mexico, both longtime allies.

The measure's prospects aren't good, however. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who sets the agenda for chamber action, hasn't agreed to put the measure up for a vote. Obama could veto it if it did pass.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., dismissed the committee action as a "political show vote."

"The question isn't whether energy-state Democrats can support a Keystone bill in committee," McConnell said in an emailed statement. "It's whether or not they'll continue to stand with their party and their leader in blocking the full Senate from voting on it, or whether they'll stand up for jobs and demand a vote."

The committee advanced its bill after negotiations to allow a vote on the Keystone measure as an amendment on an energy efficiency bill fell apart last month. At the time, supporters said they had backing from 56 senators, four shy of the needed 60 to prevent it from being blocked. The backers included all 45 Senate Republicans.

Landrieu, who is seeking re-election in a state Obama lost in 2012, has used her support of the pipeline to highlight her independence from the president and her party. Her race against U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, a Republican, is considered her toughest yet.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democratic leader, said Tuesday that party leaders haven't ruled out letting the measure go before the full chamber in a different bill later this year.

"We've been preparing to consider that as an amendment," Durbin said. "I'm not sure if and when it will come up."

Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican and a Keystone supporter, said Wednesday that he doubts that will happen and said Landrieu's vote is "a cheerleading exercise rather than a meaningful effort to get the pipeline approved."

Most Democrats on the panel said approving the permit by legislation would sidestep an intense review process by the Obama administration and the measure shouldn't advance.

"These things are bad precedents to put into statutes," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

The proposed pipeline would link Canada's oil sands with refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. The administration is under pressure to block the project by environmentalists who say it would boost greenhouse-gas emissions, which scientists have linked to climate change. Backers say it would create jobs and promote North America energy independence.

The State Department, which is leading an interagency review of the pipeline proposal, had asked other agencies to file comments on the plan by early this month. On April 18, it announced it would extend that deadline until a legal challenge to the route through Nebraska is settled by the state Supreme Court. That probably extends consideration into 2015.

Former Vice President Al Gore, who shared a Nobel Peace Prize for advocating action on climate change, wrote in Wednesday's issue of Rolling Stone magazine that Obama "has signaled that he is likely to reject the absurdly reckless Keystone-XL pipeline."

In the article, Gore expresses optimism that the world is finally acting to address the risks of carbon dioxide, including by promoting clean energy that doesn't produce greenhouse gases that warm the planet. He wrote that his optimism is based in part on Obama's recently announced plan to limit carbon from power plants.

"Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore inconveniently ignores several facts" in the article, said Shawn Howard, a spokesman for TransCanada Corp., which proposed building the line in 2008. "Keystone XL will move Canadian and American oil to U.S. refineries, where tens of thousands of skilled refinery workers create products we all rely on. This includes fuels that power equipment in the television studios that Gore used to own and consumer products like gasoline and jet fuel that he relies on."

At the White House, press secretary Jay Carney said in response to a question about Gore's remarks that the pipeline review is continuing at the State Department.

"The president's position, opposition on the pipeline has not changed," Carney said. "The process continues. It's being run by the State Department, in keeping with the practice of administrations of both parties."

Information for this article was contributed by Kathleen Hunter, Jim Snyder and Roger Runningen of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 06/19/2014

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