Congress clears Keystone pipeline bill, setting up veto

WASHINGTON - The Republican-controlled Congress cleared a bill Wednesday to construct the Keystone XL oil pipeline, setting up a confrontation with President Obama, who has threatened to veto the measure.

The House passed the bill on a 270-152 vote, endorsing changes made by the Senate that stated climate change was real and not a hoax and that oil sands should no longer be exempt from a tax used to clean up oil spills.

One Republican, Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, voted against the measure, while 29 Democrats backed it, including Robert A. Brady and Donald Norcross from the Philadelphia area. But neither the House nor the Senate has enough votes to overcome a veto, the first of many skirmishes between the Democratic White House and Congress on energy and environmental policy.

Supporters were already strategizing on how to secure the pipeline's approval using other legislative means.

"The evidence is in," said Rep. Fred Upton (R., Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. "The case ought to be closed."

Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota, the chief Republican sponsor of the bill, said in a statement, "We will continue to press for approval by attaching an approval measure to another bill, perhaps an energy bill or must-pass appropriations legislation."

Obama "needs to work with Congress in a bipartisan way and approve the Keystone XL pipeline project for the American people," he said.

For Republicans, the bill's passage capped weeks of debate on a top priority after they took full control of Congress last month. Hours before the vote, they prodded Democrats who did not take their side. House Republicans, who have debated and passed numerous measures on the pipeline only to have them dead-end in the Senate, claimed victory.

Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.) said she was a having a "holy cow" moment.

"This kind of support . . . it doesn't get any better than this," she said.

Democrats, meanwhile, called the effort a waste of time but said the provisions on global warming and oil spills marked progress for Republicans on those issues.

First proposed in 2008, the pipeline has come to symbolize the differences between the parties on energy and environmental matters.

Republicans and the oil industry have argued the $8 billion infrastructure project is about jobs and boosting energy security, by importing oil from a friendly neighbor and shipping it to domestic refineries subject to more stringent environmental regulations.

Democrats, and their environmental allies, have characterized it as a gift to the oil industry that would worsen global warming and subject parts of the country to the risks of an oil spill, with little economic benefit because the oil and its refined product would be exported abroad.

The pipeline would connect Canada's tar sands with Gulf Coast refineries that specialize in processing heavy crudes.

Representatives from the Philadelphia area who voted for the pipeline bill were: Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Ryan Costello (R., Pa.), Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Tom MacArthur (R., N.J.), Donald Norcross (D., N.J.), Pat Meehan (R., Pa.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Voting no: Brendan Boyle (D., Pa.), John Carney (D., Del.), and Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.).

Not voting: Matt Cartwright (D., Pa.) and Michael Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.).

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