Senate Passes Keystone XL Oil Pipeline Bill
Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON The Senate on Thursday passed a bill to force construction of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline, which President Obama is certain to veto in his first official clash with the new Republican-majority Congress.
The five-year fight over the Keystone pipeline has become a proxy symbol for far broader fights over climate change, energy and the economy, and for the conflict between Mr. Obama and congressional Republicans.
When Republicans won control of the Senate late last year, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the new majority leader, chose the Keystone bill as the first measure Republicans would send to Mr. Obama.
The White House promptly declared that Mr. Obama would veto the measure which would force the approval of a proposed 1,179-mile oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico in a stroke of the pen that is expected to be the opening shot in a series of vetoes of Republican measures.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/us/politics/keystone-xl-pipeline-bill-advances-to-final-vote-in-senate.html
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)pangaia
(24,324 posts)just WHAT does this do for Americans?
Will somebody even ask the question?
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,681 posts)What does WHAT do for Americans?
The pipeline?
The fact that the Senate passed this bill?
The promised veto?
I'll be happy to answer once I know what you're asking.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)My questions were 2-- both I guess rather sarcastic..
1- What in the world does this pipeline do for Americans? Nothing that I can see. Canadian oil going through the US to places far and wide. DUH !
2- Why don't people ask this simple question (DU excluded) ?
Double DUH...
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,681 posts)You're correct: the pipeline does nothing good for us. We take all the risk and get zero of the "benefit."
I think people don't ask because they've been brainwashed into thinking that this pipeline will lower gas prices (ha!) and provide jobs (haha!). Maybe the job thing will come true, but it would probably be for jobs cleaning up the many catastrophic spills!
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)I think it's 13 permanent jobs.
840high
(17,196 posts)14.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)jobs also. They will help make up for the jobs losses do to TPP. See it all works out.
840high
(17,196 posts)PatrynXX
(5,668 posts)so utterly toxic even America can't use it. = 50 jobs minus the million's of deaths this will likely bring from spills we have no idea how to clean up. ie once something spills it's an auto superfund site and nobody can go near it. Ironically I assume it'll go thru Republicans in Nebraska's dead bodies ... since when does Canada dictate what we can or cannot do.. this would go back to assume Hillary Clinton probably wouldn't veto it if she were president.
FBaggins
(26,757 posts)For years, the president wouldn't say that he opposed it... they were just "studying" it. Members of congress could say that they were waiting for the administration to act.
Republicans obviously think that they can use the vote in future campaigns.
RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)Johnny Rash
(227 posts)Let me guess, upon the announcement of this most SHOCKING news, CRUDE-OIL stock prices went a little bit higher today .
Still, I am hoping this is more a "Morale Booster Scheme" cooked up by the Big OIL Barons, rather than the REAL thing.
sendero
(28,552 posts).. I get the risks, the practical inevitable pipeline spill, but what do Americans GAIN from this?
Pretty much nothing, I'm pretty sure about that.
The passage of this toxic crap is yet another indication of just WHO our congress is working for. It's not the people.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Maybe a few Senators, too.
I'm being sarcastic, but only just.
It'll be a good veto. We don't need that foolish thing, even if it makes our Canadian friends happy.
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)hold, would override the President's veto.
FBaggins
(26,757 posts)It's unlikely that they can get five more
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)they will likely lose vote on XL.
NYC Liberal
(20,136 posts)upaloopa
(11,417 posts)will leak polluting the aquifer. No jobs will be created. The oil will add to the current glut in the world market and the people negatively effected will vote for the next crop of repugs.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)it still has no benefit that I can see for Americans.
al bupp
(2,182 posts)A margin of 62 to 36 is not 2/3 of either 100 or 98, depending on how the total is reckoned in such cases.
WestMichRad
(1,335 posts)To override requires a 2/3 majority...in both houses of Congress. So if 98 Senators vote on the override (the number who voted on the bill today), it will take a minimum of 66 votes to override. And similarly, at least 2/3 of voting House members to concur with overriding the veto, to make it become law.
INdemo
(6,994 posts)and signs the bill. "Its a legislative bargaining chip" is what he will tell us
djean111
(14,255 posts)IMO he really wants both.
stage left
(2,965 posts)But I'm afraid you may very well be.
INdemo
(6,994 posts)Cha
(297,528 posts)Panich52
(5,829 posts)From The Hill:
Eight Democrats joined with every Republican in voting to approve the $8 billion project, four votes short of the two-thirds majority that would be needed to override a promised veto from President Obama.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/231193-senate-votes-to-build-keystone
choie
(4,111 posts)The Dems who voted for it were: They were: Michael Bennet (CO),Tom Carper (DE), Bob Casey (PA), Joe Donnelly (IN), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Joe Manchin (WV), Claire McCaskill (MO), Jon Tester (MT), and Mark Warner (VA) - Harry Reid missed the vote.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)On the cloture motion (passed 62-35):
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=114&session=1&vote=00045
Final vote (passed 62-36):
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=114&session=1&vote=00049
The 9 Democrats voting in favor:
Bennet (D-CO)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Manchin (D-WV)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Tester (D-MT)
Warner (D-VA)
peoli
(3,111 posts)pangaia
(24,324 posts)underpants
(182,868 posts)This doesn't get you anywhere in the Commonwealth or nationally
BlueEye
(449 posts)The fact that there are Democratic senators from Indiana, Montana, and North Dakota is pretty remarkable, given how red those states are. This is how democracy works.
Now Carper, Warner, a few others... That's probably just Big Oil money talkin'.
Historic NY
(37,452 posts)when will they pass a bill demanding Alaskan oil to come to the mainland through Canada.?
world wide wally
(21,754 posts)future . our proverbial goose is thoroughly cooked and I will never believe in anything he says again.
Cha
(297,528 posts)I don't know why so many here want to set their hair on fire and run around screaming " the sky is falling" ever time the president says he will doe something, like veto this, instead of waiting to see what really happens. It always makes me wonder what is wrong with these people.
Cha
(297,528 posts)and complete idiots over at the GOP.
Johnny Rash
(227 posts)Last edited Thu Jan 29, 2015, 09:01 PM - Edit history (1)
I still think the answer lays with the CONSUMERS rather than with the VOTERS.
But, then, both the CONSUMERS and the VOTERS always seem to get it wrong at the end-of-the-day.
appleannie1
(5,068 posts)told him I would never vote for him again.
Geronimoe
(1,539 posts)I sent him similar email. Told him he never ceases to disappoint.
Didn't know Senator Casey is a global warming denier.
Now we all know he is a puppet for the energy industry!
mountain grammy
(26,644 posts)I sent a message to Bennet telling him to quit pretending he cares about the environment and global climate change. Quit being a phony and tell us where you stand: no future for your children or mine.
IronLionZion
(45,514 posts)If the controversy is the route over the aquifer, why not just change the route and bypass the aquifer? What am I missing here? They could route it next to the existing pipelines.