Keystone XL wins House approval, heads to the Senate

The long debated, much studied Keystone XL pipeline may be the biggest beneficiary of the protracted battle for the Louisiana Senate seat.

This afternoon, the U.S. House approved a bill to authorize the 1,179-mile pipe that would bring crude from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. It was sponsored by Rep. Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who has a good chance of unseating Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat, in their state’s Dec. 6 runoff. All 221 House Republicans voted for it, as did 31 Democrats.

The House has passed similar legislation eight other times, but today’s bill has a good chance of getting past the Senate, where GOP supporters say they have the votes they need—including Landrieu’s.

The incumbent splits with many in her party when it comes to legislation that benefits the energy industry, important business in her home state. Like Cassidy, she supports the Keystone project and lobbied her party’s leaders in the Senate to bring the House bill up for a vote next week. All 45 current Senate Republicans are expected to vote in favor, and supporters say at least 15 Democrats will join them.

Environmentalists oppose the project because they fear the long-term effects of a spill. They also oppose making it easier for the nation to continue its dependence on fossil fuels. But a State Department study issued in January noted the pipeline could make transporting the oil safer, since consumer demand will ensure energy companies bring it to market one way or another, either by rail or tanker truck.

Traveling in Asia, President Barack Obama said his administration couldn’t finish its six-year review of the project until a legal challenge in Nebraska was settled. But the White House didn’t issue a veto threat either, something it’s done in the past.

The pipeline’s supporter hope the GOP victories in the midterm elections, along with the Louisiana Senate seat still up for grabs, could induce the president to finally lend his support.

“This project will create jobs and lower costs for Americans,” Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement. “At some point, President Obama has to realize that his blockade of the Keystone XL pipeline is forcing American consumers to depend on volatile, oil-rich regimes and is hurting our diplomatic relationship with our top trading partner—Canada. Canada’s abundant natural resources will be put to use; the question is, who will benefit—American consumers or our economic competitors?”

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, urged the president not to stand in the way of legislation that has bipartisan support: “The president doesn’t have any more elections to win, and he has no other excuse for standing in the way.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.