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Keystone XL Pipeline

March 9, 2012 by · Comments Off on Keystone XL Pipeline 

Keystone XL Pipeline, U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday defeated a Republican proposal to take quick action on the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline from Canada to Texas, in a vote that will give Republicans more ammunition to criticize President Barack Obama’s energy policies on the campaign trail.

TransCanada’s $7 billion project has been supported by some Democrats in the past, but Obama took the unusual step of calling some senators personally and asking them to vote against the proposal, drawing immediate fire from Republican leaders.

The measure needed 60 votes to pass, but fell four short.

Obama put the project on hold earlier this year pending further environmental review. Republicans argue the pipeline would create jobs and improve energy security at a time of surging gasoline prices. The project will take more than two years to build after winning all approvals.

“At a moment when millions are out of work, gas prices are skyrocketing and the Middle East is in turmoil, we’ve got a president who’s up making phone calls trying to block a pipeline here at home. It’s unbelievable,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Obama has supported construction of the southern leg of the pipeline, and his administration will assess a new route around an environmentally sensitive area of Nebraska once it has been identified, White House spokesman Clark Stevens said.

“Once again, Republicans are trying to play politics with a pipeline project whose route has yet to be proposed,” Stevens said.

The Keystone amendment was among 30 measures — many of them energy-related — being voted on as the Senate pushes in coming days to renew funding for highways and other infrastructure projects, slated to run out at the end of March.

Earlier, the Senate also defeated proposals to expand the area available for offshore oil drilling and extend the time for manufacturers to phase in new pollution regulations set by the Environmental Protection Agency for industrial boilers.

But the Keystone amendment attracted the most attention. The pipeline would carry crude from Canadian oilsands to Texas refineries and would also pick up U.S. crude from North Dakota and Montana along the way.

With a 34-64 vote, senators also defeated a proposal from Democratic Senator Ron Wyden that would have blocked exports of oil from the pipeline, as well as refined products made from the oil.

Keystone XL Pipeline

November 20, 2011 by · Comments Off on Keystone XL Pipeline 

Keystone XL Pipeline, Texas Rep. Ted Poe blasted the Obama administration for delaying a final decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline at least a year, accusing the administration of being “at war with American energy production.”

Poe, R-Humble, said TransCanada Corp.’s proposed 1,700-mile pipeline for carrying tar-sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to Texas refineries could create thousands of domestic jobs and reduce U.S. oil imports from volatile Mideast nations. By delaying the decision, “we are just continuing down the road of high energy prices,” said Poe, whose district includes the Port Arthur region that has refineries that will receive the crude.

“The people I talk to feel like this administration is at war with American energy production,” Poe told Newsmax TV. “This is a perfect example.”

Environmentalists oppose the project because they say tar-sands oil is an especially dirty form of energy. They’re concerned that tar-sands oil takes more energy to extract than conventional oil, meaning more climate-warming greenhouse gases go into the air. They also are concerned the pipeline could spill and contaminate drinking-water supplies.

Poe said pipelines are “the safest way to transport crude oil in the whole world.”

“We have to get this oil to our refineries some way,” Poe said. “The environmentalists have not given us a solution except saying, ‘We don’t want this pipeline.’”

He added: “Why not trade with a stable partner rather than relying on Middle Eastern oil?”

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