Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., appealed to states’ rights, during a House hearing today, while arguing against permitting construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to proceed before the end of 2012.
“The Republican-controlled legislature and the governor in Nebraska just recently just voted to reroute the pipeline away from the ecologically sensitive sand hills region in the district,” Rush said in his opening statement. “It’s hard for me to believe that the party that espouses states’ rights wants to trample over the rights of the state of Nebraska.”
Rush continued his critique by saying that Republicans prefer industry success to public health. “We all understand that under the current Republican majority in the [U.S. House of] Congress, issues such as environmental protection, safety laws, and public health safeguards, are all secondary in importance to allowing industry to move forward unfettered and unrestricted,” he said.
“If this was truly solely about jobs, for my Republican colleagues,” he added moments later, “then they would not be trying to stifle each and every aspect of every job-creating program that President Obama has been begging, pleading, and pushing the Congress to act on.”
