President Obama said Friday that a looming vote in the Republican-led House to approve the Keystone XL pipeline would not alter his views on the project, accusing GOP leaders of distorting the jobs created by such construction.
“Understand what this project is: It is providing the ability of Canada to pump their oil, send it through our land, down to the Gulf, where it will be sold everywhere else. It doesn’t have an impact on U.S. gas prices,” the president said during a press conference in Myanmar, issuing some of his strongest language yet against Keystone.
House Republicans have repeatedly taken votes on Keystone, but the pipeline returned to the limelight this week, when embattled Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., called for a vote in the upper chamber. The Senate could take up the measure next week.
The president didn’t seem to care, however, about the evolving political dynamic surrounding Keystone.
“My position hasn’t changed, that this is a process that is supposed to be followed,” he said of the review being conducted by the State Department.
Whether in the lame-duck session or in 2015, a Keystone bill will eventually reach the president’s desk — and he’ll be forced to decide whether or not to veto the construction of the pipeline.
The White House this week hinted that Obama might issue a veto, something he has done just twice in his presidency thus far.
“There have been previous proposals that I expect would be consistent with proposals that have been discussed overnight,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “And in evaluating those earlier proposals, we have indicated that the president’s senior advisers at the White House would recommend that he veto legislation like that.”
