News
GOP lawmakers ready pipeline options
Saturday, January 14th, 2012
By Joseph Morton
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
WASHINGTON — Republicans on Capitol Hill are already planning their next move in case President Barack Obama rejects a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, as many observers expect him to do soon.
Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., a leading pipeline supporter, said he and other top GOP members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee plan to discuss legislative options Tuesday when they return from their holiday recess.
Everything will be on the table if Obama rejects the $7 billion project, but one possibility is simply to mandate approval, Terry said.
"There's no more finesse left if he denies it," Terry told The World-Herald on Friday. "I think you've got to just come straight out and say that Congress is going to legislate its approval."
Senate Republicans are having similar discussions. Lawmakers are mindful, however, that whatever they craft must withstand legal scrutiny.
If they are successful in legislatively mandating the project, lawsuits by pipeline opponents are sure to follow.
The Keystone XL would transport crude oil from Canada's tar sands region to Texas refineries, crossing Nebraska along the way. At one time, the State Department had planned to decide on the pipeline's permit by the end of 2011, but then delayed the politically tricky decision until 2013, after the presidential election.
State Department officials say the extra time is needed to review an alternative route, still being determined, that would avoid Nebraska's Sand Hills.
Saying the State Department has all the information it needs after three years of reviews, Republicans insisted on folding a 60-day deadline for a pipeline decision into the payroll tax cut extension, while exempting the rerouting process through Nebraska from the deadline.
The administration must make a decision by Feb. 21, and Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have a running clock on their website, showing second-by-second how much time has passed since the 60-day period started.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters this week that the State Department has been clear the 60-day deadline does not provide enough time to finish reviewing the proposal, given that the Nebraska route has yet to be determined.
"There is a reason why this process has within it the duration required to properly review all the different aspects of a project like this and to weigh all the important criteria," Carney said. "And to try to circumvent that process is, as we said at the time, counterproductive."
The payroll tax cut was extended for only two months and will be debated again when Congress returns. Terry said Keystone XL could become a part of that debate.
The company behind the pipeline, TransCanada Inc., appreciates the great support shown for the pipeline by many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, but it's not clear whether forcing the president to make a decision now will ultimately help the project, company spokesman Shawn Howard said.
"It is a bit frustrating for us as a company when there's a political process going on that we're not a part of," he said.
Environmental groups who have opposed the pipeline certainly expect the administration to deny the permit.
Jane Kleeb of environmental advocacy group Bold Nebraska said denial would represent a "huge victory" regardless of what follows.
"This is a rare moment when citizens, in particular family farmers and ranchers, beat big oil," Kleeb said.
As the wait for a decision continues, all parties continue scrambling for leverage on the issue.
The American Petroleum Institute this week announced a significant advertising campaign in key states, including Nebraska, citing Obama's rhetoric on the economy and urging him to embrace the pipeline and the thousands of construction jobs supporters say it would create.
During a conference call with reporters Friday, the Natural Resources Defense Council continued to take issue with those job creation claims, saying the numbers are exaggerated because many of the jobs will last only a few months.
If the permit is denied, it's possible TransCanada could move to build individual pieces of the pipeline within the United States. Those decisions will be based on market forces, Howard said.
TransCanada is now focused first on identifying a broad corridor for the pipeline that would bypass the Sand Hills. It wants to see a required memorandum of understanding between Nebraska's Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. State Department before making any concrete plans, Howard said.
"There's been enough surprises here, and we'd like to avoid those if we can," Howard said.
Contact the writer:
202-630-4823, joe.morton@owh.com
http://www.omaha.com/article/20120114/NEWS01/701149903#gop-lawmakers-ready-pipeline-options