TYT: Keystone XL Pipeline Is GOP's Number One Priority, Obama Readies His Pen

[WhoIsNumberNone]

"The White House announced Tuesday afternoon that President Obama plans to veto a newly introduced pro-Keystone XL bill if it passes the Senate, the Associated Press reports.

Senators John Hoeven, R-North Dakota, and Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, introduced a bill on the Senate floor Tuesday that would immediately approve the Keystone XL pipeline for construction. The bill was introduced with 60 co-sponsors—54 Republicans and six Democrats—totalling the number of yes votes needed to approve the bill with a filibuster-proof majority, The Hill reports.

Hoeven told Bloomberg Businessweek that an additional three senators intend to vote in favor of the bill, bringing the total yes votes to 63. If true, the bill would still need another four votes to override a potential presidential veto."* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur and John Iadarola break it down.

[fredamae]

1. Oh really?

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/06/1355984/-The-Obama-administration-is-NOT-saying-that-it-will-veto-the-Keystone-XL

[Fred Sanders]

2. Congress is not voting to approve the pipeline, they are voting to take away final authority for

approving the pipeline from the Executive Branch, so you are correct, not exactly.

"As for the principal reason for the veto, Earnest said it had more to do with procedure than policy, though the White House objected to both aspects.

"The concern that we have right now is principally on the idea that this piece of legislation would undermine what has traditionally been, and is, a well-established administrative process to determine whether or not this project is in the national interest," he said. "The fact is, a complete evaluation of that project can’t be completed until this legal dispute about the route of the pipeline has been settled and we know what the final route of the pipeline actually looks like."

The administration, he said, was withholding "broader judgment on the project itself," although he added that "you can note our skepticism about some of the claims made by the most enthusiastic advocates of the pipeline."