Segments of pipe for the Keystone XL wait in a field.
The White House
says there will be no fanfare or other drama surrounding the veto of the Keystone XL pipeline bill Congress is sending to President Obama this morning. The bill, which circumvents an executive branch process for approving international pipelines (bridges and tunnels) that dates back to the Grant administration and has been governed by executive order since 1968, will be quickly vetoed to avoid distractions from the possible shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans have vowed to verbally attack the president over the move:
But quick action, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said, “eliminates any opportunity to take the focus off the bizarre things Republicans are doing on DHS and immigration orders.”
“It would be smart to do it right away,” he said. “The longer they delay it, the longer Republicans are allowed to work on two or three issues at the same time.”
In an op-ed column published in
USA Today Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner
touted the pipeline's alleged benefits to the economy and blasted the president for delays in approving it:
Keystone is also good for the country as a whole, providing a more stable and affordable energy supply to help protect against huge price spikes. Developing North America's energy resources remains one of our best opportunities for long-term growth and competitiveness. When we don't seize on this potential, it's another notch in the belt for competitors like China, which now consumes more energy than we do, produces more coal than we do, and is the world's leading manufacturer.
So that's who wins with a veto: bureaucrats, extremist environmentalists and the Chinese. Meanwhile, the American worker and the unions that represent them? Canada, our dear ally and top trading partner? The middle-class families the president claims to be committed to helping? They're all left out in the cold.
They got one thing right. They wrote that "This shouldn't be a difficult decision." No, it shouldn't. But the president's veto will not necessarily mean that Obama will later reject the pipeline itself. Over the past 21 months since he gave his climate speech, there have been hints that he will reject it at the completion of the State Department's evaluation of whether the project is in the "national interest." But the full range of his thinking in the matter is unknown.
Whether or not the pipeline is eventually approved, the opposition to it—which has been built around an alliance determined to reshape U.S. energy policy away from the profligate burning of fossil fuels that is one of the key elements powering climate change—will not be closing up shop. Win or lose on Keystone XL, that opposition has many more battles to fight.