GOP lawmaker wants morning-to-night Keystone pipeline focus

By Ben Geman - 01/15/12 05:23 PM ET

On Friday, The Hill explored how Republicans are seeking to rebound from December’s struggles by attacking President Obama’s indecision over the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Rep. Tim Griffin (R-Ark.), in Sunday’s New York Times, nicely sums up the GOP view that the pipeline battle gives Republicans a political opening against Obama:

“I want to wake up talking about Keystone pipeline and I want to go to bed at night talking about Keystone pipeline,” he told the paper in a wider story about House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) struggles to govern his caucus.

“Because it shows everything that is wrong with this administration and everything that is right about conservatives in Congress,” Griffin added.

Obama, under a provision in December’s payroll tax cut law, faces a Feb. 21 deadline to make a decision on TransCanada Corp.’s proposed pipeline to bring Canadian oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries.

The White House had earlier delayed a final decision about whether to permit the project until after the 2012 elections.

Business groups, Republicans and a number of unions support the pipeline as a way to create jobs and increase energy security.

Environmentalists bitterly oppose it due to greenhouse gas emissions and other ecological damage from Alberta’s massive oil sands projects, and fears of spills along the pipeline route.