Endgame impossible to predict as House GOP delays pipeline-payroll tax vote until today
Source: Elana Schor • E&E • Posted: Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who spearheaded the letter, said in a statement that “Montanans want this project to move forward in a way that respects private property rights and safety standards, and I hope the House won’t stand in their way.” Fellow Montana Sen. Jon Tester (D) joined him on the letter urging Boehner to pass the Senate payroll tax bill, as did Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Mark Begich (D-Alaska).
Added over the initial objections of White House negotiators, the Keystone XL provision at issue — which Boehner vowed less than a week ago to attach to a stopgap tax bill sent his way by the Senate — would require the State Department to approve the $7 billion pipeline within two months. If President Obama chose to reject a permit for Keystone XL, bitterly opposed by environmentalists who warn of its attendant greenhouse gas emissions increases, he would have to submit an official explanation to Congress.
While Republicans celebrated their success in forcing Obama’s party to accept the pipeline language, a top priority of the oil industry, green activists pivoted quickly over the weekend to insist that the Keystone XL rider would backfire on the GOP by giving the White House grounds to reject the pipeline (E&E Daily, Dec. 19).
Click here to read the Senate Democrats’ letter to Boehner on the payroll tax bill’s Keystone XL provision.