The tar sands of Alberta.
The House voted
252-161 on Friday to approve the Keystone XL pipeline that will transport Canada's dirty tar sands oil across the United States to the Gulf of Mexico, where it will be shipped overseas, creating about
50 permanent jobs in the U.S. This bill is an attempt to circumvent the need for presidential authorization for the project.
More than that, since this is Rep. Bill Cassidy's bill, it's an effort to blunt any advantage Sen. Mary Landrieu hopes to gain on the issue by getting the Senate to vote on the bill, since the two are still locked in a battle for the Senate seat in a run-off that will be held next month. Which makes Senate Democrats' big bail out of Landrieu even more stupid. Once the Senate plan to allow her to get her vote became clear, the suddenly efficient House Republicans had Cassidy's bill ready to go. It will be known in Louisiana as "Bill Cassidy's energy bill," or possibly "Mary Landrieu's pathetic swan song."
Landrieu had one possible chance to save her butt in next month's run off: Convincing Democrats who didn't turn out to vote for her on November 4 to rally behind her. Good luck with that now. This desperate attempt by Senate Democrats to hold that one last seat in what will be the minority next session is made only slightly less awful by the fact that they're one vote short of the 60 votes needed to pass it. We can hold out a tiny bit of hope that they won't pass it next Tuesday when they hold their vote. If they do, the White House has hinted at a veto. The vote will also give us a sense of whether there would be a veto-proof majority for the bill in the Republican-led Senate. Those aren't very shiny silver linings, however.
