Obama's Irresponsible Keystone XL Veto Threat

Stimulus: Obama says jobs from the Keystone project aren't permanent and it's just one pipeline that will move foreign oil to foreign markets. But fixing the bridge he once used as a prop didn't create permanent jobs either.

'Let's set our sights above a single pipeline," the leader of the party of infrastructure told Congress in the State of the Union. But this Congress has 80 more Republicans than when he took office, and on Thursday the Senate rejected his admonition by a 62-36 vote.

Eight Democrats crossed the aisle after a series of amendment votes, a process that had vanished under former Majority Leader Harry Reid. While not approved with a veto-proof majority, the Keystone bill, after House approval, will head to Obama's desk, where stopping the pipeline will finally put the onus on him and him alone.

President Obama speaks in front of the Interstate 495 bridge 
near Wilmington, Del., to announce an initiative to increase 
private sector investment in the nation's infrastructure

The president wants a bill that fixes the nation's bridges and roads — legislation he touted when he spoke last July with the Interstate 495 bridge over the Christina River near Wilmington, Del., as a backdrop. The bridge had been closed for emergency repairs after the discovery of four tilting support columns. Yet Obama didn't make the argument it was just one bridge or that the jobs fixing it wouldn't be permanent.

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Yes, Keystone is just one pipeline. But its 1,700 miles would join the more than 50,000 miles of existing pipelines crisscrossing the U.S., including one already carrying crude from Canada. When those building the pipeline finish it, they'll just move on to other pipelines and projects, like people who finish a bridge or road move on to other bridges and roads.

Keystone XL would bring up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day and directly create 20,000 truly shovel-ready jobs. And it would carry not only Canadian oil, but also oil from the Bakken shale formation of North Dakota.

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