US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid opens door to vote on Keystone pipeline
Democrat Senator prepared to allow vote on environmentally-sensitive oil pipeline, if Republicans support bill promoting energy efficiency in building codes
US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, in an abrupt election-year shift in strategy, opened the possibility on Tuesday of allowing a vote on congressional approval of the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline.
“I’m open to anything that will move energy efficiency,” Reid, a long-time Democrat opponent of the project, told reporters.
He was referring to a bill that would save energy through tougher building codes sponsored by Senators Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, that the Senate is expected to consider as early as next week.
Details were unclear, but in exchange for Republicans supporting the efficiency bill, Reid could permit a vote on a measure that would allow Congress to approve the bill of the pipeline. The vote could allow Democratic senators facing tough elections in November to be seen as supporting the project.
But even if the bill passes the Senate and a similar bill passes in the House of Representatives, it is likely that President Barack Obama would veto it.
The Obama administration has been considering the pipeline for more than five years. Earlier this month, the State Department said it would again delay a decision on the pipeline until the Nebraska Supreme Court settles a dispute over the path of the pipeline, effectively delaying the decision until after the November 4 mid-term elections.
“We are discussing what to do,” a senior Democratic aide said, making no prediction on when a decision would be made on whether to allow a vote on TransCanada Corp’s pipeline. The project would bring more than 800,000 barrels per day of heavy oil from Canada’s Alberta province to refineries in Texas.
