Good job, Mr President! ~ ~ the GOP/TPers canNOT say they weren't warned repeatedly ~ Sooz

Begun the veto era has
02/24/15 03:51 PM
By Steve Benen

President Obama repeatedly told Congress not to waste its time passing legislation on the Keystone XL oil pipeline – if they did, he’d veto it. Lawmakers would be better off investing their energies in bills that could become law.

The Republican-led House and Senate, evidently eager to help the economy in Alberta, Canada, ignored the warnings and passed their proposal. This afternoon, the president kept his word, issuing the following message to lawmakers:


Republicans are, predictably, outraged by the outcome they knew all along would happen, calling the veto “political.” It’s not – this has always been more of a policy fight than a political food fight.

But more important is the degree to which this veto very likely marks the beginning of a new era for Obama’s presidency.

As Rachel noted on the show last night, “This is a big deal.”


Quite right. There were a couple of minor, technical vetoes from Obama early on, but in terms of meaningful legislation, today is a first. Up until this year, this president has had at least one chamber of Congress controlled by his own party, but now that the GOP dominates all of Capitol Hill, the governing dynamic is entirely new – among two-termers, Obama has made fewer vetoes than any president since Abraham Lincoln, though this president’s total is very likely to start growing in a hurry.

As for the substance of the legislation itself, let’s recap our discussion from a few weeks ago, noting just how straightforward the case against Keystone is. At issue is a proposal to build a pipeline to transport oil, extracted from tar sands, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Critics have said the tar-sands process is environmentally hazardous, which is true. They’ve said the project would have no real impact on already low gas prices, which is also true. And they’ve said Keystone would be largely meaningless to the U.S. unemployment rate, which, once again, is completely true.

And on the other side of the aisle, Republicans have an equally straightforward rejoinder: they really, really, really like this project. Why? Because they really, really, really do.

Let’s acknowledge what too often goes unsaid: for Republicans, the Keystone XL pipeline is no longer about the Keystone XL pipeline. It’s just one oil project – one that would have no discernible effect on anything, except maybe the economy in western Canada (not that I have anything against western Canada’s economy).

Rather, Keystone has become a totem of sorts. Its actual value has been rendered meaningless, replaced with post-policy symbolic value that ignores pesky details like facts and evidence. Indeed, the more Democrats and environmentalists tell Republicans this is a bad idea, the more Republicans convince themselves this is The Most Important Project In The World. It’s ideologically satisfying.

Taking this one step further, my suspicion is that GOP officials find all of these circumstances quite convenient. Republicans don’t have a jobs agenda, or much of an economic vision in general, but they have a Keystone bill that those rascally Democrats won’t accept.

And when pressed for an explanation on why congressional Republicans aren’t working on economic development, they immediately turn to their talking point of choice: “Keystone! Keystone! Keystone!”

It’s almost sad. NBC’s First Read did a nice job recently describing the fight as small ball: “We’ve got to ask: All that money spent on the midterms, all that jockeying for control of the Senate, and first real statement from the new GOP majority is Keystone? It’s small-ball politics, whether you’re on the right, left or in the middle. It’s certainly no Contract with America.”

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/begun-the-veto-era-has

Being a Canadian, I'm glad this pipeline was stopped by Obama. In order for the TAR to be economically viable, the province of Alberta reduced its royalty take by over 50% and the federal government pours hundreds of millions of taxpayer's dollars into subsidies for the industry. The less TAR coming out of Alberta's ground - the less taxpayers have to shell out for Alberta.

do they have the votes to override?

Sorry, mac ~ I missed seeing your above post until just now ~ I would have answered "I don't think so" ~ but this confirms my non-answer ~ ~ Sooz

Senate fails to override Obama’s Keystone XL pipeline veto
03/04/15 03:15 PM—Updated 03/04/15 04:29 PM
By Michele Richinick

The Senate’s attempt to override President Barack Obama’s veto of the bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline failed on Wednesday afternoon, effectively ending the measure, NBC News confirmed.

The final vote was 62-37, but the measure needed a two-thirds majority of the Senate to pass. The House cannot now consider a similar motion.

Sixty-two senators supported the measure, including all Republicans and eight Democrats, NBC reported. Thirty-seven Democrats opposed it.

Last week, Obama fulfilled his promise by vetoing the GOP bill to approve the pipeline, stopping a key item on the Republican party’s agenda. He cited danger to the country’s safety and environment. The GOP claimed the bill would have created jobs and lowered gas prices.

Obama’s decision marked the third veto of his entire presidency.

The pipeline, which would bring heavy tar sands oil from Canada across the middle of the United Sates to a port on the Gulf of Mexico, became a top priority for environmentalists, who said the project would exacerbate climate change and create other pollution risks.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner previously called the president’s veto a “national embarrassment.”

[There is a "photo essay"/slide show accessible via the end link]

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/senate-fails-override-keystone-xl-pipeline-veto

Yeah. Don't allow that, but allow this. See highlighted section. Someone's been bamboozled. The way I read it, the only difference is that this doesn't cross the border.
So....why all the outrage over the KXL, but not this? hmmmm


U.S. Running Out Of Oil Storage? Blame Canada.



Oil storage tanks are filling up. There’s a concern, highlighted by this AP story yesterday, that sometime in April U.S. storage could hit “tank tops.” With too much oil and not enough places to put it, the natural market response would be for the price of crude to plummet, maybe even down into the $20 range, deepening the nightmare for America’s frackers and possibly catalyzing a round of defaults and bankruptcies.

At first glance the reasons for the buildup in oil storage seems obvious. America’s oil companies are simply fracking out too much light, sweet crude, right? They are. But that’s not the cause of the glut at the storage hub in Cushing, Okla. A report out this week from the Energy Aspects consultancy explains that the issue is more complicated than that. Blame Canada.

Energy Aspects says that it’s not the American frackers at all. Rather the culprit is barrels of heavy Canadian crude backing up there on their way to Houston.

In November, pipeline company Enbridge started up its $3 billion Flanagan South pipeline. The line originates in Pontiac, Michigan and carries about 550,000 bpd of oil across Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and down to Cushing.


Flanagan South was a watershed project because it accomplishes what Keystone XL was supposed to — creates the first high-volume, direct connection between the heavy oil fields of western Canada and America’s refining megaplex on the Gulf Coast. The only material difference between the two: Keystone would go right over the U.S.-Canada border (and thus require State Dept. approvals), while Flanagan picks up oil that a separate pipeline brings in to Pontiac.


When this heavy oil gets to Cushing, customers paying to send their oil on the line (called “shippers”) have the option of storing it for a time at the hub, or sending it on down to the Gulf via the newly completed Seaway Twin pipeline, owned by Enbridge and Enterprise Products Partners.

If prices were higher for the heavy Canadian crude, those shippers might prefer to send it straight down Seaway. But because of the “contango” situation in the oil markets now — where the price of oil for delivery six months from now is higher than the current spot price — these shippers would rather store it and wait.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopher ... me-canada/

Gotta love the weird rationales for oil prices.