Yesterday the Keystone XL Pipeline came up for a vote in the Senate and was defeated in a rare Democratic filibuster of the amendment. As anticipated, the Republican Party goose-stepped in lock step to support the measure. Sadly six Democrats goose-stepped with the Republicans.
The six Democrats, who deserve your wrath, if they are yours, are: Max Baucus, Jon Tester, Kent Conrad, Bob Casey, Claire McCaskill and Jim Webb.
The Senate narrowly rejected a Republican-sponsored measure Thursday that would have bypassed the Obama administration’s current objections to the Keystone XL pipeline and allowed construction on the controversial project to move forward immediately.
Fifty-six senators voted in favor of the amendment — four short of the 60 required for approval. Eleven Democrats joined a unanimous Republican caucus in backing the plan.
The proposed 1,700-mile long pipeline expansion, intended to carry crude oil from Canada’s oil sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast, has become a political lightning rod. Supporters, including the oil industry, say it’s a vital job creator that will lessen the country’s dependence on oil imported from volatile regions.
Opponents say the pipeline may leak, and that it will lock the United States into a particularly dirty form of crude that might ultimately end up being exported anyway.
The measure has sharply divided key Democratic constituencies. Labor unions largely back the plan while environmentalists oppose it.
President Barack Obama rejected a bid in January to expedite the pipeline, arguing that a decision deadline imposed by Congress did not leave sufficient time to conduct necessary reviews. Administration officials have said the president may still eventually give the project a green light, though critics accuse him of trying to delay a final decision until after the November election.
Obama personally lobbied wavering Democrats to block passage of the amendment… [emphasis added]
inserted from <CNN>
Before and since, Republicans have tried to link Obama’s opposition to the pipeline with higher gas prices. On Wednesday night Ed Schultz offered an excellent piece covering Republican hypocrisy on this issue.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
The Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, aka Fox, doesn’t look too fair and balanced there, do they?
Had Barack Obama not personally lobbied against Keystone XL, it might well have passed.
6 Responses to “Keystone XL Defeated”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
“Supporters, including the oil industry, say it’s a vital job creator that will lessen the country’s dependence on oil imported from volatile regions.”
Oh, here we go again! It won’t create the 120,000 jobs that Boehner boasts, not even the tens of thousands that McConnell says. And reduce the dependence on foreign oil — I like the new touch — ‘imported from volatile regions’? I doubt it! All that oil, if the Keystone XL were built, will go from the Koch Industries refineries in Corpus Christi onto the open market. Can anybody honestly see Koch Industries, or any other oil company for that matter, settling for a lesser price for oil/gas so that the American public can have $2/gal gas for the car? Their only allegiance is to the almighty greenback!
I am certainly glad that Mr Obama personally lobbied the Democrats to defeat the bill. Are constituents that blind to the whole issue? And I hope more people saw Ed. That was great. What a bunch of hypocritical, lying bunch of GOP toadies! Of course they said that in 2008 when Baby Bush was catching flack about gas prices. Heavens, Faux Noise wouldn’t know the truth if it bit them on the ass.
“Fifty-six senators voted in favor of the amendment — four short of the 60 required for approval.”
I called and urged defeat at my State Level…
Cannot relax yet– it ain’t over!!
Just to keep you on the up-and-up, sadly it was TEN Democrats who crossed over to the Dark Side:
Democrats Max Baucus (MT), Begich (AK), Casey (PA), Conrad (ND), Hagan (NC), Landrieu (LA), Manchin (WV), McCaskill (MO), Pryor (AR), Tester (MT), and Webb (VA)
The Rushpubliscums crossed over into insanity awhile ago, so every idea they come up with has to be viewed through a prism that filters for insanity. This is a spectacularly bad idea, dreamed up by Harper (who would fit in well with Rushpubliscums in the US) and nurtured by nutjobs south of the border. Instead of having hearings on this pipeline, there’s enough evidence of the insanity of the whole thing to warrant competency exams for each and every backer of this abomination, whatever their political affiliation may be.
To be sure, Harper is a Baby Bush wannabe who is trying to remake Canada by stealth because he knows Canadians in general won’t stand for his BS. Trouble is, even though the popular vote was 39.6%, because of our ‘first across the line’ voting system, he ended up with more seats — a majority to ram through, come hell or high water, his personal agenda items, and not necessarily anything he campaigned on. (He campaigned on not touching Canada Pension and Old Age Security but is now looking at how he can remake it to be cheaper etc) He’s more intelligent than Bush but is just as conniving and dishonest. When Mr Obama called in January and told him Keystone was toast, he had a hissy fit and was quite vocal about his ‘disappointment’ and from one source I heard that he had nothing nice to say about Mr Obama. As I said, a Baby Bush wannabe with delusions of grandeur who would fit in perfectly with the Republican/Teabaggers!