Free Republic

Delays of the Keystone XL pipeline are providing little obstacle to Western Canadian oil producers getting their crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast, with shipments set to more than double next year. The volume of Canadian crude processed at Gulf Coast refineries could climb to more than 400,000 barrels a day in 2015 from 208,000 in August, according to Jackie Forrest, vice president of Calgary-based ARC Financial Corp. The increase comes as Enbridge Inc.’s Flanagan South and an expanded Seaway pipeline raise their capacity to ship oil by as much as 450,000 barrels a day. Canadian exports to the Gulf...

On Friday, an overwhelming majority of House members passed legislation sponsored by Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) which approved construction of the long-delayed Keystone XL Pipeline. By 252 to 161, the House opted to send the measure to the U.S. Senate, where it will face a vote from the upper chamber next week which could, for the first time, force the president to determine whether to approve or veto the oil transit route. 31 Democratic representatives voted with every Republican member of Congress save Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), who voted present, to approve construction of the pipeline. It is an...

According to Sen. Jim Inhofe, there may be enough Democratic votes to override President Barack Obama’s expected veto of legislation to authorize construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The Oklahoma Republican said that Democrats who survived their party's big defeat in the midterm elections want to keep their distance from the president — so much so that many of them would vote to override a possible veto on the pipeline. "After the beating the Democrats took, keep in mind we have another election coming up in 2016," Inhofe told WMAL Radio on Thursday, The Washington Free Beacon reported. "There are...

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 519 (Republicans in roman; Democrats in italic ; Independents underlined ) H R 5682 RECORDED VOTE 14-Nov-2014 12:52 PM QUESTION: On Passage BILL TITLE: To approve the Keystone XL Pipeline … … … … … 221 … 1 11 Democratic 31 161 … 9 Independent … … … … TOTALS 252 161 1 20 ---- AYES 252 --- Aderholt Amodei Bachmann Bachus Barr Barrow (GA) Benishek Bentivolio Bilirakis Bishop (GA) Bishop (UT) Black Blackburn Boustany Brady (PA) Brady (TX) Brat Bridenstine Brooks (AL) Brooks (IN) Broun (GA) Buchanan Bucshon Burgess Byrne Calvert Camp Capito...

Before her remarks, Landrieu was spotted riding the escalator alone up from the Senate trains that carry lawmakers between their offices and the Capitol, toward a row of elevators. She was stone-faced and declined to answer questions from reporters. Once she reached the top level and stepped off, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), one of his party’s top campaign strategists, walked over. Smiling, he asked Landrieu to step aside for a private conversation. She shook her head and moved briskly toward the elevator. As she did, she pointed to her phone, saying she had a call. Schumer paused for a...

The White House is hinting that President Obama will veto any bill authorizing the construction of the Keystone Pipeline. One of the few bi-partisan pieces of legislation is threatened by the most partisan president in history. The Hill: The White House on Thursday hinted that President Obama could veto congressional legislation approving the Keystone XL pipeline as lawmakers in both the House and Senate were readying votes on the controversial construction project. "Our dim view of these kinds of proposals has not changed,” press secretary Josh Earnest said. Earnest reiterated that the State Department was still reviewing the controversial pipeline...

The White House on Thursday hinted that President Obama could veto congressional legislation approving the Keystone XL pipeline as lawmakers in both the House and Senate were readying votes on the controversial construction project. "Our dim view of these kinds of proposals has not changed,” press secretary Josh Earnest said. Earnest reiterated that the State Department was still reviewing the controversial pipeline project, and that litigation in a Nebraska court still needed to be resolved. On Wednesday, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), facing a tough reelection effort, requested unanimous consent to proceed on a vote approving the pipeline. With nearly a...

Senate Democrats are working on plans to hold a vote authorizing construction of the Keystone XL pipeline -- approval that Democrats believe might bolster the chances of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who faces a tough runoff election next month. It was not immediately clear Tuesday night whether Republicans would consent to proceeding with such a vote during the lame-duck session that begins on Wednesday -- especially given the high stakes surrounding Landrieu's reelection race. Such a move would also draw howls from the environmental movement who had hoped that President Obama would resolve a years-long dispute over a long-awaited energy...

Americans have entrusted Republicans with control of both the House and Senate. We are humbled by this opportunity to help struggling middle-class Americans who are clearly frustrated by an increasing lack of opportunity, the stagnation of wages, and a government that seems incapable of performing even basic tasks. Looking ahead to the next Congress, we will honor the voters’ trust by focusing, first, on jobs and the economy. Among other things, that means a renewed effort to debate and vote on the many bills that passed the Republican-led House in recent years with bipartisan support, but were never even brought...

On the Thursday after Democrats’ drubbing at the polls, White House Press Sec. Josh Earnest appeared on CNN where he doubled down on Barack Obama’s insistence that the areas where there was likely to be grounds for compromise were initiatives of key importance to the American left. In his speech yesterday, Barack Obama inexplicably cited “roads and bridges,” universal pre-kindergarten funding, and increasing the minimum wage as places where ascendant Republicans should compromise their principles. Each of these proposals are also, coincidentally, bullet points on the progressive wish lists he calls State of the Union Addresses. Somehow, Obama was unable...

The goal: Show voters right away that Republicans aren’t mere obstructionists, as Democrats so often claim, but are capable of passing popular bills that even Obama might be willing to sign. This ain’t your daddy’s GOP, they mean to say. And by “your daddy,” they of course mean “Ted Cruz.” With the 2016 presidential campaign already looming large, McConnell (Ky.) and Boehner (Ohio) are both eager to shed the party’s image as an unruly collection of obstructionists and far-right ideologues.The remedy, they have decided: Act quickly to send President Obama bills with bipartisan support to fast-track international trade agreements,...

Republican gains in the Senate have given Keystone XL supporters a filibuster-proof majority to pass a bill approving construction of the controversial pipeline. Before Tuesday’s election, supporters had 57 votes in the Senate in support of Keystone, including a dozen Democrats. After Republicans picked up seven Senate seats (and counting) in Tuesday's election, the vote count for Keystone had ballooned to 61. GOP Sen.-elects Mike Rounds (S.D.), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.) Cory Garnder (Colo.) and Joni Ernst (Iowa) are all Keystone backers. "The election of several pro-Keystone Senators puts the passage of Keystone that much closer and shows energy projects...

Steep stock market corrections often create shrouds of pessimism that do bad things to people’s brainpower. And one of the absolutely stupidest things I have heard in recent weeks is that the recent drop in oil prices is bad. You heard me right. Serious people on financial television are saying lower oil prices are a signal of worldwide economic collapse. Here at home that translates to recession, deflation, a profits collapse and rising unemployment. I’ve been around for a while, and I’ve seldom heard such gibberish. The latest stock market scare stems from a bunch of fears — such as...

Seems Canada is tired of waiting – and waiting – for a decision on the Keystone pipeline and has come up with an alternate plan for moving the oil to market. As Bloomberg reports: It would be Keystone on steroids, more than twice as long and carrying a third more crude. Its end point, a refinery in the blue-collar city of Saint John, New Brunswick, operated by a reclusive Canadian billionaire family, would give Canada’s oil-sands crude supertanker access to the same Louisiana and Texas refineries Keystone was meant to supply. And: … if you’re a fed-up Canadian, like Prime...

The federal government recently began its seventh year of considering whether to approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. Nearly all that time has passed under the administration of President Obama, who seems content never to decide the pipeline's fate. That way, it wouldn't be built, which would please the president's supporters on the liberal environmental fringe, but would never be explicitly rejected, which could offend everybody else. It's striking to see an administration stonewalling an issue with so much popular support on the other side. A Washington Post-ABC News poll in March found that 65 percent favor building the...

Senate Republicans are preparing an agenda for their first 100 days in power next year in case they win majority control of the upper chamber, The Hill reported. The agenda includes authorizing the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline, approving “fast-track” trade authority, rolling back new Environmental Protection Agency regulations and repealing Obamacare’s unpopular tax on medical devices. Republican senators insisted they were not “measuring the drapes” in anticipation of a wave election sweeping them into power after years in the minority. “We will have to be prepared if we are in a position to govern,” Sen. Bob Corker said. “You...

A Tulsa, Okla.,-based plumbers and pipe welders union is clearly flush with cash, as a dozen of their top officials made more than $200,000 last year, federal records show. Plumbers AFL-CIO Local Union 798 paid business manager Daniel Hendrix $280,000 and financial secretary/treasurer Wade Pilgreen $272,000 in fiscal 2013, according to disclosures the union filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. ... Hendrix said his pipe fitters make about $50 an hour and work at least a 60-hour a week plus expenses, and the union staff is compensated at a similar rate for their roughly 80-hour work weeks. A person...

NELIGH, Neb. — Willie Nelson and Neil Young will headline a concert next month in a Nebraska cornfield organized by opponents of a proposed pipeline that would carry oil from Canada south to the Gulf Coast. Bold Nebraska said Monday the concert will be held Sept. 27 on a farm near Neligh in northeast Nebraska. Tickets go on sale Wednesday.

I was picking at my habanero and lychee salad in one of Washington’s many new chichi must dine at spots and sipping a melon vodka martini which Barry our waiter had highly recommended when it dawned on me . I was so embarrassed this week to be a woman that only fear of surgery kept me from considering a sex change. Once again the left has manufactured a make-believe War on Women as a defense against America’s fury at intrusive, expensive, and foolish big government. This time the vehicle for the statists was the Hobby Lobby case and once again...

Obama’s inability to make a decision on Keystone has finally yielded a result – Canada has made the decision for him. Breitbart reports Canada has just approved the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project – a major pipeline to ship Canadian oil to Asia. The Canadian oil will still be burnt – in Asia, instead of America. All the jobs and energy security which Canadian oil could have delivered to America, will instead be delivered to Asia. Rather than purchasing crude from a friendly and allied neighbor, the United States will most likely need to continue its reliance upon hostile sources like...