Reid bashes GOP plans to force Keystone pipeline approval

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) stressed again Tuesday that he is opposed to GOP measures to force approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Reid, speaking to reporters in the Capitol Tuesday, said there are no guarantees that oil from the project will stay in the United States.

“The bill as written says the oil will be sold to some other country. I will not support that,” Reid said.

Critics of the pipeline — which would carry oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to refineries on the Gulf Coast — make that argument to undercut GOP claims that the bill will boost energy security by making the United States less reliant on oil from unstable nations.

“[When] the oil is not sold to other countries, then I'll take a look at it. But until that's the case, I think I and most Democrats feel the same way.”

At least one Democrat — Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — supports a Senate Republican measure to force approval of the project. Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), a vocal proponent of expanded drilling, told reporters Tuesday that he is still reviewing the bill, adding, "I'm for Keystone 100 percent."

At the same time, Republicans are pressuring Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) to include language in a must-pass payroll tax cut extension that would approve the pipeline.

Reid's Keystone comments mark the second time in a week that he has bashed the project.

“If we want to wean ourselves from foreign oil, why would we allow a pipeline to be built for 1,700 miles to manufacture petroleum products to be shipped overseas? That's the purpose of this,” he told reporters last week.

“So if they have some reasonable proposals, I'll be happy to look at them, but that doesn't sound too reasonable to me,” he said.

President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline earlier this month. He argued he was forced to kill the project under a GOP-backed measure in a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut that required a verdict by Feb. 23.

Republicans have vowed to overturn his decision and are eyeing various legislative vehicles to do so.

More than 40 Senate Republicans — and Manchin — unveiled legislation Monday that would bypass the Obama administration and force approval of the pipeline.

Meanwhile, in the House, GOP leadership is considering a bill that would give the final decision on the pipeline to the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, rather than the State Department. The bill would make it difficult for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reject the pipeline.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has said he will consider attaching a measure aimed at approving Keystone to a broad package the uses revenue from expanded drilling to fund infrastructure investments.

But at least one Senate Republican, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), has been critical of that proposal, arguing that Keystone must be attached to must-pass legislation.

Any GOP measure to approve the pipeline faces major hurdles in the Senate and would likely face a White House veto. But the measures will nonetheless give Republicans another opportunity to bash Obama for rejecting the project.

Republicans argue that Keystone will create thousands of jobs and boost the economy. But critics of the pipeline say the project would result in increased greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental damage. They also say GOP job estimates are wildly inflated.