Union leaders urged President Obama not to veto the the Senate bill authorizing the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. They argued the project, which would build an oil pipeline from Canada’s tar sands to the Gulf of Mexico, would a boon for jobs and the economy.
The bill passed the Senate on Thursday, 62-36, but the president has said he’ll veto it if lands on his desk. The 62-vote Senate majority is not sufficient to override a veto.
“North America’s Building Trades Unions urge President Obama to listen to both the will of the U.S. Congress, where significant bipartisan majorities support the construction of Keystone XL, and to the findings of his own Department of State, which has concluded, on several occasions, that the construction and operation of the Keystone pipeline does not represent any significant increase in atmospheric carbon levels,” said Sean McGarvey, president of the coalition group.
Terry O’Sullivan, president of the Laborer’s International Union of North America, also applauded the Senate vote, adding that it never should have come to that. “We hope the president stops the politics when a bill reaches his desk and unlocks the good jobs and energy the pipeline will support.”
Galen Munroe, spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said the union was still backing the project though it hasn’t issued a statement on the Senate vote. The spokesman pointed to a statement last month by Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, in which he said there was no point to any further delays. “[E]nough is enough. Seven years of review by 10 federal agencies, as well as numerous state and local agencies, is sufficient. Keystone has had the most exhaustive review and analysis of any infrastructure project in U.S. history.”
The unions have been waiting for the pipeline’s construction to get underway for five years. Because the project would be international, the State Department must approve it. The administration appeared on the verge of doing in it in 2011, when it abruptly pulled back after environmental groups made opposing it a major cause.
Since then, the White House has continually delayed the project, saying it needs more time to study it. Numerous studies though have said it would have little to no effect on the environment while 2013 one by the State Department said it would support an estimated 42,100 jobs during its construction.
President Obama previously rejected approving the project in 2012 after the Congress approval of it to an unrelated payroll tax bill.
