(task) House Votes To Approve Keystone XL Pipeline Bill

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> House Votes To Approve Keystone XL Pipeline Bill
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> In one of their first acts of the new Congress, House Republicans voted Friday to approve legislation authorizing construction of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.
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> The House voted 266 to 153 in favor of the bill, with 28 Democrats joining with most Republicans to pass the legislation.
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> The vote in the House came on the heels of news the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled the state's governor was within his authority when he approved the pipeline's route in 2013.
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> In a split 4-3 vote, the court struck down a lower court ruling that found the law used to approve the pipeline unconstitutional.
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> While this marks the tenth time the House has approved construction of the pipeline, the previous bills have all died in the Senate.
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> Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., said the Senate will hold a key procedural vote to move forward with the bill on Monday.
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> The new Republican-controlled Senate may have enough votes to approve the bill, but President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the legislation.
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> In his daily press briefing on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest noted that the proposed legislation is similar to a Keystone bill introduced in the last Congress that Obama also threatened to veto.
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> "I can confirm for you that if this bill passes this Congress the President wouldn't sign it either," Earnest told reporters.
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> He added, "And that's because there's already a well-established process in place to consider whether or not infrastructure projects like this are in the best interest of the country."
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> Obama has called on Congress to allow the State Department to complete its review of the project, which is projected to ship up to 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Canada and Montana to Cushing, Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast area.
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> The project is estimated to support several thousand jobs during a two-year construction period but only about 50 permanent jobs.
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> by RTT Staff Writer
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> For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com
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