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There’s a debate raging on the Senate Floor right now over the Keystone XL Pipeline, and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D – CA) is lamenting how dirty the air is where the pipeline will end, Port Arthur, TX. Specifically, she is using a photo of a playground in the Texas city located near oil refineries showing dark plumes of smoke pouring into the sky and an entirely overcast sky. She claims the air will become even worse if the pipeline is approved. I’ve done graphic design for many years now and can tell when something is most likely Photoshopped. This is...

Will it or won't it pass? Stay tuned..

5:55pm The Senate began a 15 minute roll call vote on passage of S.2280, a bill to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline [60-vote threshold].

The White House on Tuesday sidestepped the question of whether President Obama would veto a Senate bill authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline. Asked repeatedly if the president would put the kibosh on the legislation, White House press secretary Josh Earnest would say only that he did not want to leave reporters with the "impression" the president was leaving his options open. "I’m not in a position to issue veto threats from here, but … there are similar pieces of legislation that have been introduced in this Congress where the president’s senior advisers have recommended a veto," Earnest said. Earnest was...

The president of a South Dakota-based Native American tribe says it will be an “act of war” if Congress authorizes construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. “We are outraged by the lack of intergovernmental cooperation,” Rosebud Sioux Tribe President Cyril Scott said in a statement. “We are a sovereign nation and we are not being treated as such,” Scott said in response to Friday’s House vote to approve the project. “We will close our reservation borders to Keystone XL. Authorizing Keystone XL is an act of war against our people.”...

We most certainly need to "drill, baby, drill." But how much of this oil is going to be shipped elsewhere, and how much will stay in the US? While much of it will probably be refined, will it then be shipped to Latin America or other places? Why not keep it all (or at least the lion share of it) here in the United States?

Embattled Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and other supporters of building the Keystone XL pipeline appear to be one vote short of the 60 they need to win a key vote on the project on Tuesday. Landrieu has 59 votes backing legislation to approve the project, and Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Angus King (I-Maine) appear to be her top targets to get to 60. The effort is crucial to Landrieu because of her runoff election in December against Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who also backs the pipeline. Landrieu is seen as a decided underdog in the race, and Senate Democrats...

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and other supporters of the Keystone XL oil pipeline are stuck at 59 votes — one vote shy of the supermajority they need to move their bill forward on Tuesday. Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said Monday that they would vote against moving forward with the legislation, making it unclear whether supporters had a path to the magic number of 60. Rockefeller had appeared to be one of the last possible converts Monday evening, and supporters were pressuring the retiring senator to join their side. But he told reporters on Monday that he...

Energy Transport: New data show fast-rising rail shipments from North Dakota's Bakken shale formation and the need for a safer alternative to rail — like the Keystone XL pipeline. In his post-election press conference, the president noted in justifying his continual kicking of the Keystone XL oil drum down the road that "while this debate about Canadian oil has been raging ... we've seen some of the biggest increases in American oil production and natural gas production in our history." That increase is due in large part to oil recovered from the Bakken shale formation centered on North Dakota. So...

The Islamic State's Sinai Peninsula terror organization, which was named Ansar Bayt al-Makdas until it swore allegiance to Islamic State (aka ISIS), has blown up the pipeline carrying gas from Egypt to Jordan. The pipeline, which is 1,200 km long, and was built at a cost of $1.2 billion, is used for exporting natural gas to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. In the past, it was repeatedly attacked by Islamist terror groups, until Egypt's gas exports to Israel were halted. The Islamic State's Sinai Peninsula notified the press that it would not allow gas to be exported to Jordan unless ISIS...

As expected, the House today passed a bill from Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. The final tally was 252-161, with 31 Democrats crossing over to vote in favor and one Republican, Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.), voting “present.” In the Senate, the incumbent facing Cassidy in a Dec. 6 runoff was desperately trying to scrape together enough votes to avert a filibuster and save the bill. Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) joined the pro-Keystone forces today, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) told reporters, adding that she thinks she can get the 60th vote. Bennet didn’t release any statements...

Keystone XL Pipeline: Obama is clearly treating Canada as if it was some rogue anti-democratic, anti-American misogynistic Middle Eastern potentate, pumping dirty oil and befouling the environment For six years, President Obama has been bobbing and weaving on the proposed Keystone pipeline. But recent events, outside of Obama’s control, have forced his hand. As a result, Obama has been forced to come out of the shadows on Keystone and state clearly his position, which is clearly negative on the Keystone pipeline. This position exposes Obama as an arrogant, insensitive, egocentric, ignorant and deceitful political hack, who is trying to appeal...

President Obama is fond of telling Congress that it should pass things with the overwhelming support of the American people, including (among other things) comprehensive immigration reform, increasing the minimum wage, and increasing gun background checks. And yet, Obama could soon be in a position of vetoing something with a similar amount of support: the Keystone XL pipeline. Poll after poll has shown support for Keystone is somewhere between very strong and overwhelming. A Pew Research Center survey this month showed support for the project at nearly two-to-one, 59 percent to 31 percent. And that was about the lowest level...

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...

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline on Friday as Senate supporters worked to line up 60 votes to send the measure to the White House. The 252-161 House vote came amid jockeying by two Louisiana lawmakers — Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy and Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu — to be seen winning authorization for the pipeline before voters decide which of them serves in the Senate next year. Cassidy said it’s past time for the United States to authorize Keystone XL, six years after Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. first asked for permits to construct the pipeline...

Current news reports say that Harry Reid will allow a vote on the Keystone Pipeline so that Mary Landrieu can register her support, and thus improve her chances in the December Senate election in Louisiana, even as the Democratic majority votes it down. The theory behind this move is the usual Democratic assumption that voters are dumb, and will not realize that the Senate vote is a charade, designed to fool them into believing that Landrieu actually supports Keystone and is not in cahoots with Harry Reid and the enviro-zealots and billionaires who back and bankroll the party.  (Even...

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...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Tribal and environmental groups are suing the U.S. State Department for approving a temporary plan by a Canadian pipeline company to increase the flow of crude oil from Alberta into Minnesota. The Sierra Club and other groups filed the federal lawsuit. The suit contends the State Department approved a plan by Enbridge Energy to construct and operate a pipeline that crosses the U.S.-Canada border without first reviewing environmental impacts. Enbridge won Minnesota regulatory approval to complete a $200 million upgrade of its 1,000-mile Alberta Clipper pipeline, boosting its flow by adding pumping stations

How desperate are Democrats to salvage the one Senate seat they still haven’t quite lost in the midterm elections? Desperate enough to anger their environmental-progressive base and threaten their ability to compete in 2016? It may come down to that question in the lame-duck Senate over the last few days of the Democratic majority. The Washington Post reports that Harry Reid and his caucus may try rescuing Mary Landrieu by passing an approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project, a key policy goal for Republicans and a big economic issue in Louisiana: Senate Democrats are working on plans to...