President Obama Will Veto Keystone XL Pipeline Bill, White House says

President Barack Obama would veto a bill aimed at forcing construction of the contentious Keystone XL pipeline, the White House has said, setting up an immediate confrontation with the new Republican-controlled Congress.

The White House, ending weeks of speculation about its response to Republican moves on Keystone, said Obama would veto a bill introduced earlier on Tuesday that aims to take the decision over the pipeline out of his hands.

Photo by Steven TuttleIf this bill passes this Congress, the president wouldn’t sign it,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said today.

“If this bill passes this Congress, the president wouldn’t sign it,” the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, said.

That position locks the White House on an immediate collision course with the new Congress, after Republicans made it a first order of business to introduce a bill forcing approval of the pipeline.

The bill introduced in the Senate on Tuesday would give immediate approval to a Canadian pipeline project that has been waiting more than six years for a decision from the Obama administration.

The measure has the support of 63 senators – all 54 Republicans as well as some Democrats – enough to override a filibuster in the Senate.

But the Keystone supporters do not have the 67 votes needed to overcome a presidential veto.

Keystone supporters said the bill fast-tracking the Canadian pipeline was critical to keep crude oil moving.

“We need more pipelines to move crude at the lowest cost and in the safest, most environmentally friendly way,” John Hoeven, the North Dakota Republican introducing the bill, told a press conference. “That means pipelines like the Keystone XL are in the vital national interest of our country.”

TransCanada, the Canadian company building the pipeline, said it was encouraged by the moves in Congress. “We look forward to the debate and ultimately a decision by the US administration to build Keystone XL,” the company said in a statement.

Campaigners see the bill as a first shot in a Republican onslaught against the Democratic president’s environmental agenda – from cutting smog to fighting climate change.

“Rather than taking action to support clean energy investments that will spur innovation and create good paying jobs here at home, they have instead chosen to support the Keystone XL pipeline and the false promises made by its proponents,” said Tom Steyer, the green billionaire.

Obama rejected Keystone in 2012, over its original route through Nebraska, and has opposed previous bills aimed at forcing through the project. In his remarks on Tuesday, Earnest did not say Obama would never authorize construction of the pipeline, and couched the planned veto of legislation expected to pass the House and Senate in procedural terms.

Full evaluation of the project could not be completed until the final determination route of the pipeline, which is now with the Nebraska supreme court.

“This is an important principle at stake here,” Earnest said, adding that the protocol for approving the pipeline had to be adhered to. He said it would be “premature” for Obama to authorize the pipeline before the court case and evaluation process had been completed.

With Obama determined to use his veto, Republicans acknowledged on Tuesday it would still be a challenge to get the pipeline off the ground.

Their most likely option now is to try to attach Keystone riders to other legislation that Obama would find it difficult to veto.

A Senate energy committee hearing on the bill, originally scheduled for Wednesday, was postponed. Republican leaders said it would take weeks before the bill is brought to a vote.

The bill would bypass the State Department, which has authority over the Keystone project, and grant immediate approval to TransCanada Corporation to “construct, connect, operate, and maintain the pipeline”.

The legislation faces delays from Republicans as well as Democrats pushing to attach various riders to the bill.

Republicans were considering measures that would block or delay Obama’s plans to curb carbon pollution from power plants. Such provisions, it is thought, would be even more likely to incur a presidential veto.

Democrats meanwhile were considering a number of potential riders of their own, including measures that would force the Canadian company building the pipeline to keep all of the oil that flows through it in the US and use only US steel in its construction, and another that would expand financial incentives for solar energy.

With Democrats now holding only 46 votes in the Senate, however, these were unlikely to pass.

The final outcome of the bill will almost certainly depend on whether Obama uses his veto power.

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has said repeatedly he intends to make Keystone the first order of business in the new Republican-controlled Congress.

The project, designed to deliver up to 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the tar sands of Alberta to refineries on the Texas Gulf coast, has become a flash point for the broader debate about climate change.

The pipeline has faced repeated delays since TransCanada first proposed it seven years ago. The State Department will not render its final decision until later this year, after the courts in Nebraska resolve a dispute over the pipeline’s route.

The pipeline has been a recurring headache for the White House.

Environmental campaigners say that if Obama is serious about climate change, he must block Keystone and stop Canada from expanding production of the oil from its tar sands that would flow through the pipeline, which is a far dirtier fuel source than conventional crude oil.

The November attempt to force construction of the pipeline – a gamble by the Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu – saw a number of Democrats supporting the project but still came up one vote short of the 60 required. The defeat ended Landrieu’s hopes of hanging on to her seat in a run-off election.

Republicans believe they have since picked up more votes from new senators such as West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito and Iowa’s Joni Ernst.

But not even TransCanada officials believe there are the numbers in the Senate to overcome a presidential veto – should Obama decide to exercise that authority.