Senators push for bill to approve Keystone pipeline

[alp227]

(Reuters) A group of 44 U.S. senators, all Republican but one, have signed on to proposed legislation that would authorize the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline despite the refusal of President Obama to advance the project.

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) planned to introduce a bill Monday that, if passed into law, would allow work to begin immediately on all but the sensitive Nebraska portion of TransCanada’s $7 billion project.

It’s not yet clear how the bill will advance in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) was the lone Democrat to co-sponsor the bill, but other Democratic senators have expressed support for the controversial project.

Obama put the pipeline on the back burner earlier in January, saying the administration needed more time to review the environmental impact in Nebraska, where the state government is evaluating a new route after rejecting an initial plan that sent the line through a sensitive aquifer region.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/senators-push-for-bill-to-approve-keystone-pipeline/2012/01/30/gIQAQysVdQ_story.html

JOE MANCHIN? That shill for the dirty energy industries should just pull a Lieberman already. Why oh why can't West Virginia elect a true progressive instead of a corporobot like him?

[Old and In the Way]

1. What a joke.

What kind of insurance bonds can we expect from the environmental disasters that we know will happen? What's the value to the US taxpayer...except donating the ground under the pipeline? How much energy will it take to heat and push liquid sandpaper 1500 miles? Why can't we do a proper environmental impact study on this project? Because then we'd know that it's all about socializing the risk while the profits stay privatized? We have so many better energy options that will create more permanent jobs and reduce the carbon impact instead of making it immeasurably worse with this project.