Senate may vote Thursday on Keystone XL approval bill

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Slowed as the Senate grappled with dozens of proposed amendments, the bill to strip President Barack Obama of the decision-making authority over Keystone XL pipeline slowly moved Wednesday towards a final vote.

That vote could come Thursday.

Among the encumbering amendments were ones to cull the prairie chicken from the threatened species list, allow unfettered liquefied natural gas exports and reward homeowners with tax rebates for putting solar panels on their roofs. They all failed.

Having dealt with more than 30 amendments and facing at least six more, the Senate was slowly closing in on a final vote on underlying Keystone XL approval bill.

Mr. Obama has already vowed to veto any Congressional effort by Republicans and their pro-Keystone XL Democratic allies that would force approval of the long-delayed project.

Anti-Keystone XL protesters, including native American and other spiritual leaders gathered outside the White House on Wednesday in bitter, blustery, winter weather, to urge the president to reject the controversial pipeline.

Lakota Chief Arvol Looking Horse, told the gathering they must be "the voices for those that cannot speak, the land and animals, our future generations. We need prayer and energy as we continue to stand up for Mother Earth and reject this Keystone XL tar sands pipeline."

Up the Mall in the Capitol, in the warmer confines of the Senate, Democrats and Republican traded jibes over whether global warming was a hoax or good science.

Several dozen proposed amendments have failed to get the 60 votes needed for inclusion. Only a handful have been attached to the underlying Keystone XL bill that approves building of the long-delayed line by taking the decision away from Mr. Obama.

Among those amendments that were killed Wednesday were Democratic efforts to provide new rebates to homeowners that installed solar panels, gave local communities the right to a detailed analysis of the impact of "of a tar sands spill" on their drinking supplies, and once that would force big campaign donors to disclose if they stood to profit from the pipeline.

Keystone XL "is a big wet kiss to Canadian oil interests and the Koch brothers who own a lot of land up there," said Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and one of the leading opponents of the $8-billion project that would funnel Alberta oils sands crude across the United States to the Texas gulf coast. "This is the filthiest dirtiest oil, we don't need it."

Sen. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat proposed the amendment that would force disclosure of big contributions from those who stood to profit. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican a staunch supporter of Keystone XL, urged it be opposed. "It's no relevant to this debate," she said. It was rejected.

Proposed Republican amendments also failed. Among them: An effort to allow unfettered liquefied natural gas exports championed by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who said it could create job, helping allies like Ukraine while hurting Russia, and the attempt to delist the lessor prairie chicken from the threatened species list.

"It's so dramatic, so damaging to the Kansas economy," Senator Jerry Moran, a Republican said of the threatened species listing, claiming that protecting its chicken's shrinking habitat would impose serious hardship on farmers, ranchers and the oil industry.

Slowly working through the slew of amendments – even if few seem destined to win approval – underscored an effort by Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader to soothe ruffled feathers among the nine pro-Keystone XL Democratic senators who were upset last week by his effort to suddenly curtail debate.

Passage of the Keystone XL approval bill seems all but certain but the 54 Republican senators and their nine Democratic allies who back Keystone XL fall short of the 67 votes – a two-thirds majority in the 100-seat Senate – needed to over-ride a presidential veto.