House Votes for Keystone Pipeline – Goes to Senate Next Week – Obama More or Less Threatens to Veto It

No less than three environmental reviews have
found that the Keystone Pipeline that would transport nearly 1
million barrels per day of Canadian oil sands crude to Gulf Coast
refineries is reasonably safe. This afternoon, the House of
Representatives voted 252-161 in favor of legislation
approving its construction for the 9th time. With Sen. Harry
Reid (D-Nev.) about to be knocked off his perch as the majority
leader, when the bill comes up for a vote in the Senate on Tuesday
some frustrated Senate Democrats may feel free to vote for it next
week.

Because Reid as able to keep the legislation bottled up,
President Obama was never directly confronted with the problem of
choosing to veto the project or not. Thus he had the luxury of
vacillating between his union backers who want the project and his
environmentalist supporters who do not. Faced now with the prospect
of being forced to make a decision, the president has strongly
signaled that his instinctual anti-market ideology will guide his
actions. From
The New Republic:

“Understand what this project is: It is providing the ability of
Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the
Gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else. It doesn’t have an
impact on US gas prices,” he said, according to
ABC News. “If my Republican friends really want to focus on
what’s good for the American people in terms of job
creation and lower energy costs, we should be engaging in a
conversation about what are we doing to produce even more homegrown
energy? I’m happy to have that conversation.”

Whenever the president invites anyone to have a conversation
with him, what he really means is “shut up while I lecture you, you
moron.” Expect a veto next week.