KEYSTONE, THE SENATE VOTE – AT 9:07 A.M. ET:  The House passed authorization for the Keystone Pipeline last week, in a sudden coming-to-life of the issue.  The Senate votes tomorrow.  There may well be cynical reasons, but this is the first time both houses will get a chance to vote on the issue.  From Fox: 

The Democrat-controlled Senate is expected to take a long-awaited vote Tuesday on approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline -- in an unexpected and politically-charged turn of events for legislation that has languished in the upper chamber for roughly six years.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will allow the vote in part to give Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu an opportunity to vote “yea” and perhaps help her win her runoff election next month against Republican challenger Rep. Bill Cassidy.

However, Landrieu’s political future and the fate of the bill remain highly uncertain.

Most political analysts think Landrieu’s effort to win a fourth term by trying to show voters in oil-rich Louisiana how much she supports Keystone is a lost cause, with reports of Washington Democrats pulling out and polls showing Cassidy ahead by double digits.

South Dakota GOP Sen. John Thune said on “Fox News Sunday” the vote will be a “cynical attempt to save a Senate seat in Louisiana," considering Reid has blocked the vote for years.

President Obama appears to be giving every indication that he will veto the bill, repeatedly saying the only way the $8 billion pipeline can be approved is after the completion of a long-stalled State Department review. There is also the pending outcome of a legal challenge to the pipeline's route through Nebraska.

They've studied this to death.  The real reason for Obama's position is the power of radical environmentalists within the Democratic Party.  Some of them write large checks to campaigns.

And during his recent trip to Australia for an economic summit Obama said: “I have to constantly push back against this idea that somehow the Keystone pipeline is either this massive jobs bill for the United States or is somehow lowering gas prices.”

Maybe, maybe not.  But the oil will be flowing from Canada, one of our closest allies, and they want that pipeline.  It will also give us a ready supply of petroleum, adding to the new finds in this country that are improving our energy picture so much. 

Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse told “Fox News Sunday” that he hopes Obama will veto the bill, considering the oil is “the filthiest fuel on the planet.”

Same old stuff.  We now have ways of making petroleum energy cleaner as we wait for green energy to finally prove itself.

Whitehouse said he thinks the new Senate Republican majority “has long despised and denigrated this president and if they can roll him I think they would like to.”

He also argued that Senate Republicans twice passed on voting on a Democrat-sponsored Keystone bill.

The analysts think the 100-member Senate is now one vote shy of the 60 needed for passing Keystone. (They have the 59 votes as 14 Democrats and all 45 Republicans.)

COMMENT:  The pipeline has always been a net positive for the United States.  It will actually add very little to the thousands of miles of existing pipelines.  It will prevent the Canadian oil from going to China, which has lower environmental standards.  But Obama will veto the bill, even if it passes the Senate.  It will take a new president to get Keystone.

November 17,  2014