Republicans try to force US$7 bil. Canada-US pipeline

A bill introduced Wednesday by 37 Republican senators would require the administration to approve the Keystone XL pipeline within 60 days, unless the president should declare the project is not in the national interest.

The State Department decided on Nov. 10 to delay the project until 2013, after the presidential election, to allow the project's developer to figure out a way around Nebraska's Sandhills, an ecologically sensitive region that supplies water to eight nearby states.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, leader of the Republican minority, called the US$7 billion pipeline the ultimate “shovel-ready” project and said it could create as many as 20,000 jobs.

He and other Republicans called Obama's decision to delay the project transparently political and said Obama had put his re-election above job creation.

“This is politics, pure and simple,” said Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

Wednesday's bill has little chance of approval in the Democratic-controlled Senate. Still, the measure illustrates Republicans' frustration over the pipeline delay and their belief that Obama is vulnerable on the jobs issue.

House Republicans are expected to highlight jobs again on Friday, during a hearing before the Energy and Commerce Committee on the pipeline project. Several labor union leaders are among those scheduled to testify.

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