The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a vote on legislation to approve the Keystone XL pipeline Thursday, one day after a hearing on the Canada-to-Gulf Coast project, the committee said.
The legislation is expected to clear the committee, setting up a Senate vote for the following week. It’s the same bill that failed by one vote in November when the Senate was under Democratic control.
Whether backers have enough to override a potential veto from President Obama remains to be seen.
“We’re just trying to get to 60,” GOP committee spokesman Robert Dillon told the Washington Examiner.
The State Department has been reviewing Keystone XL for more than six years. Its builder, TransCanada Corp., is awaiting a cross-border permit to finish the northern leg, which stretches into Canada.
Obama didn’t take a position on the bill when it came up for a November vote. But White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the president has taken a “dim view” of similar measures that would circumvent a State Department review of the project.
On top of that, Obama’s recent public remarks about the pipeline, which would bring oil sands from Canada to refineries in the Gulf Coast, have hinted the president might be leaning toward rejecting the pipeline.
The House also plans to vote on the legislation to approve the 1,700-mile pipeline within the first two weeks of the new Congress.
