First day of new Congress brings Keystone veto threat

Show Caption Hide Caption White House: Obama would veto Keystone bill White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said President Barack Obama would veto a bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline, should it be passed by Congress.

WASHINGTON — The White House said Tuesday that President Obama would veto the Keystone XL pipeline project, one of the top priorities of the brand new Republican Congress.

The veto threat came even as the 114th Congress was being sworn in, foreshadowing a legislative tug-of-war likely to define the last two years of the Obama presidency.

And while both parties sounded optimistic bipartisan notes, the veto threat made clear that cooperation will be the exception and confrontation will be the rule.

"The president threatening to veto the first bipartisan infrastructure bill of the new Congress must come as a shock to the American people who spoke loudly in November in favor of bipartisan accomplishments," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the new Senate majority leader. "Once again the president is standing in the way of a shovel-ready jobs project that would help thousands of Americans find work."

Obama has insisted that the project's economic benefits have been oversold — saying the project would create only 2,000 temporary construction jobs and fewer permanent jobs operating the pipeline. Republicans have claimed job numbers as high as 42,000.

Democrats have also argued that the project's environmental impacts would outweigh the economic benefits, and that the oil would have a negligible effect on world oil prices.

Leaving a meeting with Obama at the White House Tuesday, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a former oil geologist, even suggested that pipeline companies might privately be happy that the pipeline isn't under construction now given the drop in the price of oil. As of Monday, the cost of regular unleaded gas has dropped by an average of $1.12 a gallon from a year ago.

The White House had made softer veto threats against bills approving the Keystone pipeline in the last Congress, saying that unnamed "senior advisers" recommended the president veto it. While Obama never lifted his opposition, the White House played down the the veto rhetoric as recently as Monday. That's because the White House hadn't seen the bill yet, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday.

"I can confirm for you that if this bill passes this Congress, the president wouldn't sign it either," Earnest said. "And that's because there is already a well established process in place to consider whether or not infrastructure projects like this are in the best interests of the country."

That permitting process has been held up for nearly three years by the State Department, which has jurisdiction because the pipeline would transport crude oil from western Canada through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska before linking to an existing pipeline. A lawsuit in Nebraska has also held up the project.

"The thing that is impeding a final conclusion about this pipeline is that the pipeline route has not even been finalized yet," Earnest said. "Once that is resolved, that should speed the completion of the evaluation of that project."

Republicans say it's already been too long. The House plans to vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline Act Wednesday, and McConnell made an identical bill the first order of business in the Senate. A previous bill failed 59-41 in the Democratic-controlled Senate in November, falling one vote short of the 60 needed to defeat a threatened filibuster. The new bill already has 60 cosponsors.

Earnest said putting the Keystone vote at the top of the agenda cast doubt on the ability of Republicans to work with the White House. "Maybe it raises questions about the willingness of Republicans to actually cooperate with this administration when you consider that the very first bill that's introduced in the United States Senate is one that Republicans know the president opposes," he said.

Obama himself was more conciliatory. "I'm confident that there are going to be areas where we disagree, and there will be some pitched battles, but I'm also confident that there are enormous areas of potential agreement that would deliver for the American people," he said while meeting with the governors.

Obama has invited McConnell and House speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, back to the White House next week, and Earnest said he expects the president to be in closer touch with the senator from Kentucky as he takes over leadership of the Senate.

"You know, there's been talk of a bourbon summit. I don't know if you can charm people over bourbon, but maybe we'll try."

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