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Sens. Lugar, McConnell hope for Dem backing on Keystone pipeline bill
Republicans trying to force the Obama administration’s hand on the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline are hoping to pick up some Democratic backers for their bill to speed up approval of the project.
Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), backed by GOP leadership and dozens of other Republicans, introduced legislation Wednesday that requires a permit for TransCanada Corp.’s Alberta-to-Texas pipeline within 60 days unless President Obama determines that it’s not in the national interest.
McConnell appeared with a suite of other Republicans at a press conference on the bill. The legislation comes roughly two weeks after the Obama administration delayed a final decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 elections by requiring a new route analysis.
Lugar, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that he’s reaching across the aisle. The bill’s 36 other current sponsors are all Republicans.
“I suspect we will have some Democrats very shortly,” Lugar said.
Lugar and other Republicans said they hope for a chance to move the bill as a stand-alone measure or as an amendment to some other legislation.
The bill faces huge hurdles in the Democratically-controlled Senate, but regardless of the bill’s prospects, Republicans backing the pipeline hope to exact a political toll on Obama for punting the issue past the election.
McConnell and some other members of the GOP leadership team that appeared at Wednesday's press conference lambasted the delay as a blow against job creation. “We know there is one major shovel-ready project ready to go and that is the Keystone pipeline,” McConnell said.
The also called the delay a political decision.
“If I was speculating about the political calculation, I think I would conclude that [Obama] looked along the pipeline and concluded he is not likely to carry any of those states, so by delaying it he obviously is making an effort to curry favor with environmental activists,” McConnell said.
The pipeline delay was a victory for environmentalists that had said approval would sap their energy to mobilize on Obama’s behalf in next year's election. But several unions — another key part of Obama’s political base — back the project.
House Republicans will exploit the rift in Obama’s base at a Friday Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the pipeline that will include witnesses from the Laborers' International Union of North America and three other unions that back the project.
Business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute are lobbying in favor of the pipeline, arguing it’s a vital way to boost energy security by expanding supplies from a friendly neighbor while creating jobs.
“Building the TransCanada Keystone pipeline now is a dramatic opportunity to change that energy and national security equation. At the same time we have got a dramatic opportunity to create American jobs now,” Lugar said Wednesday.
But environmentalists — who have held two high-profile demonstrations outside the White House — oppose the project due to greenhouse gas emissions and forest damage from the energy-intensive oil sands projects, potential spills and other issues.
Green groups slammed Lugar’s bill Wednesday.
“The costs of our oil dependence are out of control, from catastrophic accidents like spills in the Gulf of Mexico, to the pervasive pollution of our air and climate, to the outrageous prices we pay at the pump. The last thing we need is to increase our dependence on even dirtier and more dangerous sources of oil, such as tar sands oil,” said John Cross, a transportation advocate with Environment America.
The State Department currently plans to complete an analysis in 2013 of new routes that would steer the pipeline away from the ecologically sensitive Sand Hills region of Nebraska.
But pipeline backers say an agreement this month between TransCanada and Nebraska politicians to avoid the area should allow a faster approval.
Lugar’s panel has jurisdiction over the new bill because the State Department is leading the federal review of the proposed $7 billion project. He said he’s hoping to have a committee hearing and expects that Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) will allow it.
“I think there will be cooperation on his part,” said Lugar, who noted he had spoken with Kerry.
A spokeswoman for Kerry, in an email, said “We are in touch with Senator Lugar’s office and evaluating how best to move forward.”
—This story was updated at 2:13 p.m.
