Keystone XL

A message from CREDO Action:

The fight to stop Keystone XL is far from over.

President Obama may have delayed his decision on the pipeline, but Republicans have redoubled their efforts, and could be dangerously close to forcing its approval.

House Republicans said Friday that they are planning to push a bill to force a decision on the pipeline and strip the President's authority to make that decision. Worse, they will attach this bill to the President's payroll-tax and unemployment benefit extension package — considered a must-pass piece of legislation that contains crucial help for our long-term unemployed.

Tell Leaders Reid and Pelosi: No back room deals on Keystone XL. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

It's one of the Republicans' most brazen moves to shill for oil companies at the expense of the rest of us. And Senate Majority Leader Reid and House Minority Leader Pelosi need to know that they can't throw the fight to stop Keystone XL under the bus as they work to find a way to pass the president's payroll-tax and unemployment benefit extension package.

According to Politico's reporting of the closed-door meeting of House Republicans:

Speaker John Boehner referred to the package he's putting forward as turning "chicken-sh — into chicken salad," according to people who attended the meeting in the Capitol basement.

Translation: He's going to pass President Barack Obama's preferred tax cut, but he wants some skin from Democrats for it.¹

That skin is the Keystone XL pipeline. The House bill would take Keystone XL decision making authority away from the President and State Department and force the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to make a decision in 30 days, substantially restricting FERC's discretion to reject the project in the process.²

The current review process by the State Department has been restarted to evaluate a new route in Nebraska, and unlike FERC, will notably consider the climate change impacts of the project, an area that wasn't taken into account in the State Department's initial sham process.

Tell Leaders Reid and Pelosi: Don't compromise on the Republicans' Keystone XL end run. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

The House's push comes on the heels of a similar, but less drastic, bill by Republicans in the Senate, which would force a decision though it doesn't remove the President's authority.

Republican hostage taking has become standard practice when it comes to legislation to provide assistance to the most needy among us. It doesn't always work, but the President considers the payroll-tax and unemployment benefits extension to be central to his jobs bill, so unless Leaders Reid and Pelosi take a stand and refuse to cut a deal that includes fast tracking Keystone XL, this could make it into bill and become law.

After everything we've fought for, we need to push back hard to make sure Democrats in Congress don't cave in and allow Republicans to force Keystone XL through the back door.

Tell Leaders Reid and Pelosi: No back room deals on Keystone XL. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Thank you for continuing to fight Keystone XL.

Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

1. "House GOP loads up year-end bill," Politico, December 2, 2011
2. "Rep. Terry: Boehner will link pipeline bill to jobless insurance, payroll tax bill," The Hill, December 2, 2011