The House will skip committee hearings and hold a floor vote on a bill to authorize the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline Friday, a House GOP aide told the Washington Examiner.
The approach stands in contrast to how the Senate plans to handle the bill. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday and committee vote Thursday, setting up a full floor vote the following week.
But the House, which has had a Republican majority for more than four years, has passed legislation to authorize the $8 billion Canada-to-Gulf Coast project a handful of times. It’s not clear whether the House process will allow for amendments on the floor, as the Rules Committee that makes that decision hasn’t met.
Keystone XL has been under federal review for more than six years at the State Department. TransCanada Corp., the pipeline builder, needs a cross-border permit to complete the pipeline’s northern leg.
Democrats in the lower chamber pressed House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to go through the committee process because they want to discuss how low oil prices might affect the need for the 1,700-mile pipeline. They contend the market is saturated with oil and that Keystone XL would facilitate growth in Canada’s oil sands, thereby adding to global greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say drive climate change.
Republicans and centrist Democrats who support the project contend that oil sands have gone to the market even with cheap prices. They also have touted the 42,100 direct and indirect jobs the project would create during its two-year construction phase, according to a State Department analysis.
It’s unlikely President Obama would sign a bill that ends up on his desk. The White House has taken a “dim view” of similar attempts that would circumvent the State Department review, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said, while noting that “the contribution [Keystone XL] could make to carbon pollution” remains a concern.
As for what the administration would do if the legislation passed both chambers of Congress, Earnest said he would reserve judgment.
“We’ll see what the legislation actually includes before we start urging people to vote one way or the other,” Earnest said at a Monday press conference.
