Fast-Track Keystone XL Plan Doomed to Fail

Coordination by the House and Senate to quickly pass the Keystone XL pipeline was doomed to fail last week. The coordination was awkward, to say the least, the House easily passed the approval of the pipeline, yet again, while the Senate had an entirely different situation.

The Senate never had the votes to pass the approval process. However, one senator’s seat was threatened in a runoff. Senator Mary Landrieu’s support of the pipeline and its approval in the Senate, could have been enough to help her win the runoff election. Harry Reid called for the vote and said that they had the 60 votes for approval. They miscounted. Now Landrieu’s seat is really in jeopardy. If the vote had been called months earlier, the votes could have been mustered to have more than enough for approval of the pipeline.

After a wasted effort due to a miscalculation, the pipeline will still have enough votes in the Senate next year from the election. If the opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline come to terms with the economic benefits of the pipeline, they may understand how much their fears were over exaggerated.

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