House Republicans push to give Keystone pipeline approval authority to Congress
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/04/10/188191/house-republicans-push-to-give.html
House Republicans push to give Keystone pipeline approval authority to Congress
By Sean Cockerham | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Wednesday, April 10, 2013
WASHINGTON Promoters of the Keystone XL pipeline are agitating for its fast approval now that the State Department has downplayed the projects impact on global warming.
Energy leaders in the House of Representatives back a bill to force the government to approve it, and the premier of the Canadian province of Alberta is in Washington lobbying for the project.
Some Republican congressmen dismissed concerns at a hearing Wednesday on the Keystone bill that the jumbo pipeline to tap Canadas greenhouse gas-intensive oil sands would warm the planet.
Texas Rep. Joe Barton was skeptical of the linkage that scientists have made between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
If youre a believer in the Bible, one would have to say the great flood is an example of climate change. Thats certainly not because mankind had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy, Barton said,
Its up to President Barack Obama to decide whether to allow the 1,700-mile pipeline to bring oil from the Alberta oil sands to U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast. The bill, sponsored by Nebraska Republican Rep. Lee Terry, seeks to take that authority out of the presidents hands. TransCanada Corp. first applied to build the pipeline in 2008, and Alexander Pourbaix, the companys president for energy and oil pipelines, called Wednesday for swift approval, saying it still might be many months before Obama decides.