House advances Keystone bill; showdown looms

Senate politics hang over measure

The House of Representatives approved a bill Friday authorizing construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, setting up a potential showdown between President Barack Obama and Capitol Hill over the controversial project.

Following the House’s 252-161 vote, attention shifts to the Democraticcontrolled Senate, where lawmakers are expected to vote Tuesday on a Keystone bill co-sponsored by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La.

If the bill overcomes the 60-vote threshold in the Senate, Obama would have to decide whether to sign it, a calculation complicated by 2014 election politics and the White House’s hope of building a presidential legacy on environmental and climate change issues.

Signing the bill might help Landrieu, who failed to win 50 percent of the vote in her re-election bid and faces a runoff Dec. 6 against Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who sponsored the House Keystone bill.

House and Senate Republicans have championed the pipeline as a shovel-ready job creator that would allow reductions in oil imports from volatile regions such as the Middle East. Obama, liberal Democrats and green groups have expressed concerns about the environmental impact of the project.

Obama didn’t sound as if he were in a bill-signing mood when he was asked about the pipeline during a visit Friday with Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon.

“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 we are doing to produce more homegrown energy,” he said. “I’m happy to have that conversation.”

White House press secretary Josh Earnest had suggested Thursday in Myanmar that Obama would veto the bill.

“I think it’s fair to say that our dim view on these kinds of proposals has not changed,” he said.

If built, the Keystone XL pipeline would stretch 1,700 miles and bring crude oil from the Canadian oil sands in Alberta to American refineries on the Gulf Coast.