Senate Now Has Enough Votes To Pass Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Bill

[RiverLover]

"WASHINGTON -– The new Senate Republican majority creates an opportunity for likely Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to force a vote on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline he's been waiting years to hold.

By The Huffington Post's count, the new Senate will have at least 61 votes in favor of a measure forcing the pipeline's approval -- a filibuster-proof majority.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Tuesday in an appearance on MSNBC that passing a Keystone approval bill would be the second item on the Republican agenda, after a budget. "I actually think the president will sign the bill on the Keystone pipeline because I think the pressure -- he’s going to be boxed in on that, and I think it's going to happen," Priebus said."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/05/senate-republicans-keystone_n_6104554.html

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..If anyone wants a refresher on why this will be a national catastrophe, here's a good article that describes the importance & vulnerability of the massive, very porous, pure water aquifer the pipeline will run through~

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/keystone-xl-pipeline-may-threaten-aquifer-that-irrigates-much-of-the-central-us/2012/08/06/7bf0215c-d4db-11e1-a9e3-c5249ea531ca_story.html

[Ilsa]

1. There goes your drinking water...

And then Congress will blame it on Obama.

[quadrature]

4. existing pipelines cross all kinds of terrain

on top of that, I suppose
the magic aquifer could be avoided
at the cost of a longer pipe

[RiverLover]

5. No pipeline goes through this type of terrain

(Because it would be CRAZY to do so...)

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"Named after a Northern Plains tribe, the Ogallala provides water to farms in eight states, accounting for a quarter of the nation’s cropland, as well as municipal drinking wells. Though early white explorers who saw this apparently arid part of the Great Plains called it a “great American desert,” the aquifer has turned it into America’s breadbasket.

The spongelike aquifer formed more than 20 million years ago, when erosions of gravel and sand from the Rocky Mountains were washed downstream. It is replenished by rain and melting snow, but it gets just two to five inches of precipitation a year, according to a ­TransCanada filing to the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. Much of the water it holds was absorbed thousands or millions of years ago.

In some places the aquifer is buried 1,200 feet deep, but in many places it is at or very close to the surface, often less than five feet below ground."

..."The Ogallala, Kleeb said last year in a television interview, is “a very fragile ecosystem, literally made of sand. . . . To have a pipeline crossing that region is just mind-boggling.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/keystone-xl-pipeline-may-threaten-aquifer-that-irrigates-much-of-the-central-us/2012/08/06/7bf0215c-d4db-11e1-a9e3-c5249ea531ca_story.html

[PADemD]

2. Will the pipeline go through states that voted Republican?

[4dsc]

3. civil discourse would be in order then

I for one will not allow this pipeline to cross my state and will join others in active protest to see its completion is not ever done onmy watch.

[RiverLover]

6. Thank You!!