Ryan budget would approve Keystone pipeline, open more land for drilling

The House GOP budget plan that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) will unveil Tuesday requires federal approval of the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, underscoring how the project has become a top policy and messaging priority for Republicans.

Ryan, the Budget Committee chairman, offered a preview of the budget plan in a Wall Street Journal column Monday evening that notes it would mandate approval of Keystone.

The budget plan would also make more federal lands available for oil-and-gas development, which is consistent with Ryan’s earlier proposals and many other GOP bills.

“Our budget opens these lands to development, so families will have affordable energy,” he writes in the Journal.

The Hill's On The Money blog has much more here on Ryan's budget plan, which aims to cut $4.6 trillion in spending over a decade.

Ryan’s inclusion of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline – which would bring oil from Canadian oil sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries – is a largely symbolic gesture.

His plan is a statement of GOP priorities that will inform negotiations with Democrats and the White House on fiscal policy.

But it underscores how Keystone is central to GOP messaging and policy goals.

Backers of the pipeline call it a way to create jobs and boost energy ties with Canada, a friendly neighbor that’s already the top foreign supplier of oil to the U.S.

The northern portion of the proposed pipeline that would cross into the U.S. remains under federal review, and environmentalists bitterly oppose the project.

The State Department is leading the Obama administration review of whether to grant a cross-border permit for TransCanada Corp.’s project, but the final call is expected to come from the White House.

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