SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Activists gather outside of Capitol Hill to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. (Photo: 350.org/flickr/cc)
Keystone XL Pipeline at Top of GOP Agenda in 2015
Senate committee hearing set for next week
Dec 31, 2014
The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is set to hold a hearing next week to discuss the Keystone XL pipeline.
The hearing will take place on January 7, once Republicans retake control of the Senate. The committee will consider legislation that, if approved, would push the controversial $7 billion project forward after years of resistance from environmental organizations and some Democrats in Congress. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) vowed to make Keystone a top issue, saying before the end of this year's session that it would be the first item brought to the floor by the GOP in 2015.
In November, the Senate--then still majority Democrat--rejected a bill to approve the Canada-to-Texas pipeline by a single vote. Republicans promised to move the bill forward once they took control of the Senate in January.
The January 7 hearing will be the first one held by new chairwoman Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
If passed by Congress, the bill would still need a presidential permit to move forward. President Barack Obama has said that he would not approve the pipeline if it posed an environmental risk--which, as numerous climate groups and studies have noted, it does. After expressing growing skepticism about the project for months, Obama said last week that the pipeline would "not even have a nominal benefit" to American consumers, in his most forthright critique of Keystone yet.
But Republicans are hoping to garner the votes needed to allow them to push the project forward without requiring presidential approval.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) said this week that he expects the chamber to have significant power over certain projects in 2015, including the pipeline. "I think we'll have a supermajority, a veto-proof majority," in cases like sanctions against Iran, Rubio toldNPR. "I think the same is true of the Keystone pipeline, potentially."
May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, said of the failed November vote, "By dramatically accelerating tar sands oil development, Keystone XL clearly fails President Obama's own climate test. The pipeline is a lose-lose for everyone except TransCanada. The President has all the information he needs to reject this pipeline now, and we're going to stand by him to make sure he does."
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is set to hold a hearing next week to discuss the Keystone XL pipeline.
The hearing will take place on January 7, once Republicans retake control of the Senate. The committee will consider legislation that, if approved, would push the controversial $7 billion project forward after years of resistance from environmental organizations and some Democrats in Congress. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) vowed to make Keystone a top issue, saying before the end of this year's session that it would be the first item brought to the floor by the GOP in 2015.
In November, the Senate--then still majority Democrat--rejected a bill to approve the Canada-to-Texas pipeline by a single vote. Republicans promised to move the bill forward once they took control of the Senate in January.
The January 7 hearing will be the first one held by new chairwoman Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
If passed by Congress, the bill would still need a presidential permit to move forward. President Barack Obama has said that he would not approve the pipeline if it posed an environmental risk--which, as numerous climate groups and studies have noted, it does. After expressing growing skepticism about the project for months, Obama said last week that the pipeline would "not even have a nominal benefit" to American consumers, in his most forthright critique of Keystone yet.
But Republicans are hoping to garner the votes needed to allow them to push the project forward without requiring presidential approval.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) said this week that he expects the chamber to have significant power over certain projects in 2015, including the pipeline. "I think we'll have a supermajority, a veto-proof majority," in cases like sanctions against Iran, Rubio toldNPR. "I think the same is true of the Keystone pipeline, potentially."
May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, said of the failed November vote, "By dramatically accelerating tar sands oil development, Keystone XL clearly fails President Obama's own climate test. The pipeline is a lose-lose for everyone except TransCanada. The President has all the information he needs to reject this pipeline now, and we're going to stand by him to make sure he does."
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is set to hold a hearing next week to discuss the Keystone XL pipeline.
The hearing will take place on January 7, once Republicans retake control of the Senate. The committee will consider legislation that, if approved, would push the controversial $7 billion project forward after years of resistance from environmental organizations and some Democrats in Congress. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) vowed to make Keystone a top issue, saying before the end of this year's session that it would be the first item brought to the floor by the GOP in 2015.
In November, the Senate--then still majority Democrat--rejected a bill to approve the Canada-to-Texas pipeline by a single vote. Republicans promised to move the bill forward once they took control of the Senate in January.
The January 7 hearing will be the first one held by new chairwoman Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).
If passed by Congress, the bill would still need a presidential permit to move forward. President Barack Obama has said that he would not approve the pipeline if it posed an environmental risk--which, as numerous climate groups and studies have noted, it does. After expressing growing skepticism about the project for months, Obama said last week that the pipeline would "not even have a nominal benefit" to American consumers, in his most forthright critique of Keystone yet.
But Republicans are hoping to garner the votes needed to allow them to push the project forward without requiring presidential approval.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) said this week that he expects the chamber to have significant power over certain projects in 2015, including the pipeline. "I think we'll have a supermajority, a veto-proof majority," in cases like sanctions against Iran, Rubio toldNPR. "I think the same is true of the Keystone pipeline, potentially."
May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, said of the failed November vote, "By dramatically accelerating tar sands oil development, Keystone XL clearly fails President Obama's own climate test. The pipeline is a lose-lose for everyone except TransCanada. The President has all the information he needs to reject this pipeline now, and we're going to stand by him to make sure he does."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.