Democrats Face Difficult Calculation on Keystone Vote
By Siobhan Hughes and Amy Harder
A kind of chain-reaction politics is playing out in the Senate on the Keystone XL pipeline.
Some energy-state Democrats, especially Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, are pushing for a Senate vote on the pipeline, which would bring oil from Canada to Gulf Coast refineries.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has indicated in the last couple of days that hes open to a vote. But in agreeing to one, hes in the difficult position of having to decide whether to make it a binding measure that would somehow force the Obama administrations hand, or just a resolution of support for the pipeline.
The former would, in turn, put additional pressure on the Obama administration already caught between environmentalists who oppose the pipeline and some labor groups who back the project because of the jobs it would create. The latter wouldnt satisfy people like Landrieu.
The maneuvering has been playing out over the last few days, as Keystone has come up as a potential player in horse-trading on various pieces of legislation in the Senate. One possibility is to allow for a vote on a measure related to the oil pipeline as part of a deal in which Republicans would agree to a separate vote on an energy-efficiency bill from Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D., N.H.) and Rob Portman (R., Ohio).
Whether to even schedule a vote has created a challenge for Senate Democratic leaders. If they avoiding one, theyd play into the hands of Republicans, who argue that if Democrats were serious about helping wage earners, they would authorize construction of the pipeline and the jobs it would create. By scheduling a vote, they boost lawmakers like Ms. Landrieu, who is in a tough re-election battle, but risk splitting their party, which is divided between oil-state Democrats on one side and environmental-leaning Democrats on the other.
And if they lose, Ms. Landrieus opponents could question her assertions on the campaign trail that shes in a position to get things done for the industry, meaning the person it was designed to help most could end up paying a price in the end.
In the meantime, Obama administration officials say the best approach is to let the State Departments review of the pipeline play out.
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Democrats Face Difficult Calculation on Keystone Vote