Republicans Begged Obama Not To Do Anything On Immigration Yet — Then Pushed Through a Keystone Pipeline Bill

Photo fromTar Sands Blockade.

By Timothy Gardner
The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives approved the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday, but a similar measure struggled to get enough support in the Senate and President Barack Obama indicated he might use his veto if the bill does get through Congress.

The legislation, approved by 252 votes to 161, circumvents the need for approval of TransCanada Corp's (TRP.TO) $8 billion project by the Obama administration, which has been considering it for more than six years.

House lawmakers were confident the Senate would follow suit and pass its version of the bill.

The bill's sponsor, Republican Representative Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, said before the vote the House would make it "as easy as possible for the Senate to finally get a bill to the president's desk that approves this long-overdue Keystone XL pipeline."

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The Koch Brothers-Keystone XL Filthy Oil Connection: Tyrants Behind The Crippling of American Democracy Own Have of Keystone's Wretched Tar Oil

Not satisfied with just crippling America's democracy, the greedy Koch brothers want to destroy
America's environment as well. (Keystone XL Pipeline Protest at White House, Nov. 6, 2011 - Photo
by tarsandsaction)

By Eric Zuesse

Keystone XL Pipeline wouldn't contribute to U.S. energy-production, but instead to exports of the global-warming-dirtiest oil, from Canada, to Europe and South America. It would transport Alberta Canada's tar-sands oil -- half of which is owned by the Kochs  -- south to two Koch-owned refineries near the Texas Gulf Coast for transshipment mainly to Europe. President Obama is thus trying to get Europe to relax its anti-global-warming standards to permit their importation of this oil, which is the world's absolute worst oil from the global-warming standpoint.

Furthermore, "Currently, most Canadian tar sands exports are mainly limited to the U.S. Midwest market by a lack of transportation infrastructure." This fact (the lack of "infrastructure" or transportation facilities to move the oil to the international market) keeps down not only the price the Kochs can get for their oil (since it can't currently be sold on the international market); it also greatly lowers the sheer volume of it that they can sell (at any price), because the local Midwest oil market is small. Keystone XL would thus also enormously increase the annual sales-volume of this currently deeply landlocked oil.

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