President Barack Obama on Tuesday vetoed a bill seeking to force him to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, just the third veto of his presidency.
Republican leaders pledge to keep pushing for the 1,179-mile pipeline to ship crude oil from the Canadian oil sands to Texas. But the pipeline has problems other than the president, with challenges in Nebraska and South Dakota holding up the project even if politicians were able to ram it through.
A Nebraska judge this month gave hope to landowners challenging the pipeline company TransCanada’s attempt to use their land for the pipeline through eminent domain. The judge issued a temporary injunction, delaying the company from acquiring the land until a lawsuit is settled.
There are questions in South Dakota about whether the permit for the pipeline through the state is still valid, given changes to the project since it was issued in 2010. Tribal and environmental groups are fighting the route and the state public utilities commission is holding a hearing in May.
Apart from the realities on the ground, the Keystone pipeline has become a political obsession in Washington, with lawmakers painting it as a referendum on jobs, energy and the environment.
“Even though the President has yielded to powerful special interests, this veto doesn’t end the debate,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky. “Americans should know that the new Congress won’t stop pursuing good ideas, including this one.”
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called the president’s veto of the bill a “national embarrassment.”
There aren’t enough Keystone supporters in Congress for the needed two-thirds vote to override the president’s veto. But pipeline backers are talking about other tactics to pressure Obama on the issue, such as attaching pipeline approval to bills that fund federal agencies.
It’s the first major bill that Obama has vetoed since becoming president six years ago, and only his third veto in all, the lowest number of any president since the 19th century. But, with Republicans now in control of Congress and working to roll back environmental laws and the Affordable Care Act, more Obama vetoes are likely in the final two years of his presidency.
Obama said he is blocking the Keystone XL legislation because it would force approval of the pipeline before the State Department finishes a review of whether the pipeline is in the national interest.
Obama has downplayed the economic benefits of Keystone XL, questioning how many jobs it would actually create and suggesting the oil would end up exported, an assertion that project backers dispute.
But White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday that the president might still go ahead and approve the pipeline after the State Department finishes its review. Earnest said Obama’s veto is not a reflection of the president’s views on the merits of the pipeline itself.
"It just merely says that the benefits and consequences of building that pipeline should be thoroughly evaluated by experts and through this administrative process," Earnest told reporters.
Earnest, though, was at a loss to defend the length of the Keystone review. Asked whether Obama believes the State Department's 2,300 day review was "reasonable," Earnest offered that it was "certainly fair to suggest that the State Department is conducting an in-depth review."
He said there had been legal proceedings that interfered with the completion of the administrative review, including long-running court battles in Nebraska about the route of the pipeline.
The pipeline would tap thick Alberta crude, known in its natural state as bitumen, that creates more planet-warming gases than other sources of oil. The State Department estimated it produces 17 percent more carbon emissions than average sources of oil used in America.
The State Department, however, in its environmental review downplayed the climate change effects of the pipeline. The agency concluded the Canadian oil would make it to market by rail or other pipelines even if Keystone XL isn’t built, so stopping it won’t help global warming.
The Environmental Protection Agency is asking the State Department to reconsider that conclusion.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., called Obama’s veto “a victory for the climate and common sense.”
“We should not help some of the dirtiest oil in the world to be funneled through our country like a straw,” he said.
Canada’s minister of natural resources, Greg Rickford, suggested pipeline opponents are out of touch.
“This is not a debate between Canada and the US; it's a debate between the president and the American people, who are supportive of the project,” he said in a written statement after the veto.
Meanwhile, battles over the Keystone XL pipeline continue thousands of miles from Washington.
“We will continue our struggle at the state level,” said Jane Kleeb, director of the anti-pipeline group Bold Nebraska.
TransCanada said it was seeking an accelerated trial process to resolve the lawsuit by Nebraska landowners resisting the company’s attempt to use eminent domain to route the pipeline through their property.
More than 90 percent of the Nebraska landowners along the route have reached agreements with the company, said TransCanada spokesman Mark Cooper, who described eminent domain as a last resort.
“All we have asked for is a clearly defined approval process for Keystone XL,” Cooper said.
Lesley Clark contributed to this story.
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